stachvsstayTell them apart

Which to use

“stach” and “stay” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,901
“stach” frequency rank
#19,048
“stay” frequency rank
41949
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stach stay
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs stechen bleiben

Letter map: stach vs stay

Shared letters muted; letters that set stach and stay apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. stach runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against stay's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
stach
4 ch
stay

Corpus notes: stach and stay

stach and stay are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stach is recorded at frequency rank #22,901, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃtaːx]. stay is at rank #19,048, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 41949, this pair ranks #1,464,158 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stach vs stay

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stach": ch. Private to "stay": y.

"stach" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stach ← satch · sstach · stacch · stachh · stahc · stcah · sttach · tsach
  • stay ← saty · sstay · stayy · sttay · stya · tsay

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stach" and "stay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "stach" vs "stay" - which ranks higher?
"stay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,048 in our German list, against #22,901 for "stach". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "stach" and "stay". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,464,158 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stach" and "stay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Späth vs stach". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,464,158 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list