StällenvsstandenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,054
“Ställen” frequency rank
#1,826
“standen” frequency rank
40880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ställen standen
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stall 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum des Verbs stehen

Where the eye mixes Ställen and standen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Ställen
7 ch
standen

Look-alike desk: Ställen vs standen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ställen is [ˈʃtɛlən] while standen is [ˈʃtandn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ställen is recorded at frequency rank #39,054, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtɛlən]. standen is at rank #1,826, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtandn̩].

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 40880, this pair ranks #1,495,683 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ställen vs standen

Shared letters: enst. Private to "Ställen": . Private to "standen": ad.

"Ställen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "standen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • standensatnden · sstanden · stadnen · standden · standenn · standne · stanedn · stannden

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ställen" and "standen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ställen" is a noun and "standen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Ställen" or "standen" show up more?
"standen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,826 in our German list, against #39,054 for "Ställen". 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 "Ställen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "standen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,495,683 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ställen" and "standen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ställen vs Stilen". 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 #1,495,683 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