stadevsstarbConfusable pair

Quick tell: stade is a adjective, starb is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“stade” is an adjective and “starb” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,485
“stade” frequency rank
#1,861
“starb” frequency rank
17346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stade starb
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs stad 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs sterben

Where the eye mixes stade and starb

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
stade
5 ch
starb

Why the eye confuses stade with starb

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stade is [ˈʃtaːdə] while starb is [ʃtaʁp]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stade is recorded at frequency rank #15,485, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃtaːdə]. starb is at rank #1,861, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtaʁp].

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 17346, this pair ranks #1,928,191 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stade vs starb

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stade": de. Private to "starb": br.

"stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "starb" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stadesatde · sstade · stadde · staed · stdae · sttade · tsade
  • starbsatrb · sstarb · stabr · starbb · starrb · strab · sttarb · tsarb

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stade" for "starb" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stade" is an adjective and "starb" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "stade" or "starb" show up more?
"starb" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,861 in our German list, against #15,485 for "stade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "starb" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,928,191 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stade" and "starb" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sake vs stade". 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 #1,928,191 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