staunevsSterneWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#45,605
“staune” frequency rank
#2,992
“Sterne” frequency rank
48597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature staune Sterne
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs staunen Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Stern

Where the eye mixes staune and Sterne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. staune (CCVVCV) and Sterne (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
staune
6 ch
Sterne

Visual trap between staune and Sterne

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: staune is [ˈʃtaʊ̯nə] while Sterne is [ˈʃtɛʁnə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

staune is recorded at frequency rank #45,605, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtaʊ̯nə]. Sterne is at rank #2,992, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtɛʁnə].

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 48597, this pair ranks #1,242,627 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of staune vs Sterne

Shared letters: enst. Private to "staune": au. Private to "Sterne": r.

"staune" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "Sterne" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • staune ← satune · sstaune · stanue · stauen · sttaune · stuane · tsaune
  • Sterne ← setrne · ssterne · stenre · steren · sternne · sterrne · strene · stterne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "staune" and "Sterne" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "staune" is a verb and "Sterne" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "staune" or "Sterne"?
"Sterne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,992 in our German list, against #45,605 for "staune". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "staune" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sterne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,242,627 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "staune" and "Sterne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "staune vs strunz". 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 #1,242,627 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