stevsstepsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#25,778
“ste” frequency rank
#47,751
“steps” frequency rank
73529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ste steps
Definition 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs biti Plural des Substantivs step

Letter map: ste vs steps

Shared letters muted; letters that set ste and steps apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
ste
5 ch
steps

Part-of-speech tell for ste / steps

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ste is averb and stepsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ste” sits inside “steps”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ste is recorded at frequency rank #25,778, classified as averb, pronounced […]. steps is at rank #47,751, tagged as anoun, pronounced [stɛps].

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 73529, this pair ranks #357,960 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ste vs steps

Shared letters: est. Private to "ste": -. Private to "steps": p.

"ste" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "steps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stepssetps · ssteps · stepps · stepss · stesp · stpes · stteps · tseps

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ste" and "steps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ste" is a verb and "steps" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ste" vs "steps" - which ranks higher?
"ste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,778 in our German list, against #47,751 for "steps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ste" and "steps". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "steps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,960 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ste" and "steps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "she's vs steps". 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 #357,960 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