StädtevsstautWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Städte is a noun, staut is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Städte” is a noun and “staut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,748
“Städte” frequency rank
#39,044
“staut” frequency rank
40792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Städte staut
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Stadt 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stauen

Where the eye mixes Städte and staut

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

6 ch
Städte
5 ch
staut

Visual trap between Städte and staut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Städte is [ˈʃtɛːtə] while staut is [ʃtaʊ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Städte is recorded at frequency rank #1,748, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtɛːtə]. staut is at rank #39,044, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtaʊ̯t].

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 40792, this pair ranks #1,498,155 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Städte vs staut

Shared letters: st. Private to "Städte": deä. Private to "staut": au.

"Städte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "staut" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stautsatut · sstaut · statu · stautt · sttaut · stuat · tsaut

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Städte" and "staut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Städte" is a noun and "staut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Städte" or "staut" show up more?
"Städte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,748 in our German list, against #39,044 for "staut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Städte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "staut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,498,155 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Städte" and "staut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "staunte vs staut". 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 #1,498,155 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