stayvsstrafWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“stay” and “straf” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,048
“stay” frequency rank
#30,307
“straf” frequency rank
49355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stay straf
Definition bleiben 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs strafen

Letter map: stay vs straf

Shared letters muted; letters that set stay and straf apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
stay
5 ch
straf

Pair insight - stay / straf

stay and straf are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stay is recorded at frequency rank #19,048, classified as averb, pronounced […]. straf is at rank #30,307, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtʁaːf].

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 49355, this pair ranks #1,214,621 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stay vs straf

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stay": y. Private to "straf": fr.

"stay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "straf" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • staysaty · sstay · stayy · sttay · stya · tsay
  • strafsrtaf · sstraf · starf · strfa · strraf · sttraf · tsraf

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stay" and "straf" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "stay" vs "straf" - which ranks higher?
"stay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,048 in our German list, against #30,307 for "straf". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "stay" vs "straf" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "straf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,214,621 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stay" and "straf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "straf vs Streu". 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 #1,214,621 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