stehevssteterConfusable pair

Quick tell: stehe is a verb, steter is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“stehe” is a verb and “steter” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,179
“stehe” frequency rank
#47,025
“steter” frequency rank
49204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stehe steter
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stehen Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs stet

Where the eye mixes stehe and steter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
stehe
6 ch
steter

Visual trap between stehe and steter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stehe is [ˈʃteːə] while steter is [ˈʃteːtɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stehe is recorded at frequency rank #2,179, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃteːə]. steter is at rank #47,025, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈʃteːtɐ].

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 49204, this pair ranks #1,220,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stehe vs steter

Shared letters: est. Private to "stehe": h. Private to "steter": r.

"stehe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "steter" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stehesethe · sstehe · steeh · stehhe · sthee · sttehe · tsehe
  • stetersetter · ssteter · steetr · steterr · stetre · stetter · stteer · stteter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stehe" and "steter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stehe" is a verb and "steter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "stehe" or "steter"?
"stehe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,179 in our German list, against #47,025 for "steter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "stehe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "steter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,220,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stehe" and "steter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "steter vs Stuten". 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 #1,220,206 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