StällenvsstillerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Ställen is a noun, stiller is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#39,054
“Ställen” frequency rank
#14,942
“stiller” frequency rank
53996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ställen stiller
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stall Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs still

Where the eye mixes Ställen and stiller

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Ställen
7 ch
stiller

Why the eye confuses Ställen with stiller

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ställen is [ˈʃtɛlən] while stiller is [ˈʃtɪlɐ]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53996, 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]. stiller is at rank #14,942, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃtɪlɐ].

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 53996, this pair ranks #1,036,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ställen vs stiller

Shared letters: elst. Private to "Ställen": . Private to "stiller": ir.

"Ställen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "stiller" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stillersitller · sstiller · stilelr · stiler · stillerr · stillre · stliler · sttiller

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ställen" and "stiller" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ställen" is a noun and "stiller" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Ställen" or "stiller" show up more?
"stiller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,942 in our German list, against #39,054 for "Ställen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Ställen" and "stiller" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ställen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,036,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ställen" and "stiller" 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 #1,036,134 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