stanvssteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,676
“stan” frequency rank
#25,778
“ste” frequency rank
40454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stan ste
Definition Wohnung 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs biti

Letter map: stan vs ste

Shared letters muted; letters that set stan and ste apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
stan
3 ch
ste

Grammar separator: stan vs ste

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stan is anoun and steaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stan is recorded at frequency rank #14,676, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈstaːn]. ste is at rank #25,778, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 40454, this pair ranks #1,508,020 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stan vs ste

Shared letters: st. Private to "stan": an. Private to "ste": e.

"stan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stansatn · sstan · stann · stna · sttan · tsan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stan" for "ste" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stan" is a noun and "ste" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "stan" or "ste"?
"stan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,676 in our German list, against #25,778 for "ste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "stan" and "ste".

  • Full dictionary entry for "stan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,508,020 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stan" and "ste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs ste". 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 #1,508,020 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