StällenvsstellenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#39,054
“Ställen” frequency rank
#370
“stellen” frequency rank
39424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ställen stellen
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stall senkrecht, mit den Füßen den Boden, einen bestimmten Platz oder Gegenstand berührend, in eine bestimmte oder übliche Position bringen

Same sound, different letters: Ställen vs stellen

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
Ställen
7 ch
stellen

Ear matches; page differs - Ställen and stellen

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Ställen and stellen carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ˈʃtɛlən]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - ä in “Ställen” becomes e in “stellen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39424, 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]. stellen is at rank #370, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtɛlən].

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 39424, this pair ranks #1,537,195 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ställen vs stellen

Shared letters: elnst. Private to "Ställen": ä. Private to "stellen": -.

"Ställen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "stellen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stellensetllen · sstellen · steleln · stellenn · stellne · stlelen · sttellen · tsellen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ställen" and "stellen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ställen" is a noun and "stellen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ställen" or "stellen"?
"stellen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #370 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.

Useful next steps

"Ställen" and "stellen" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ställen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stellen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,537,195 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ställen" and "stellen" 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 #1,537,195 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