stehevsstetsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,179
“stehe” frequency rank
#1,337
“stets” frequency rank
3516
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stehe stets
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stehen zu jeder Zeit, immer

Where the eye mixes stehe and stets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
stehe
5 ch
stets

Look-alike desk: stehe vs stets

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stehe is [ˈʃteːə] while stets is [ʃteːt͡s]. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3516, 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]. stets is at rank #1,337, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ʃteːt͡s].

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 3516, this pair ranks #2,000,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stehe vs stets

Shared letters: est. Private to "stehe": h. Private to "stets": -.

"stehe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "stets" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stehesethe · sstehe · steeh · stehhe · sthee · sttehe · tsehe
  • stetssetts · sstets · stest · stetss · stetts · sttes · sttets · tsets

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stehe" and "stets" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stehe" is a verb and "stets" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "stehe" or "stets"?
"stets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,337 in our German list, against #2,179 for "stehe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "stehe" and "stets" 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 "stets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,000,040 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stehe" and "stets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stehe 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 #2,000,040 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