stehenvsStilenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#297
“stehen” frequency rank
#49,273
“Stilen” frequency rank
49570
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stehen Stilen
Definition sich auf den Beinen ohne Ortsveränderung aufhalten Dativ Plural des Substantivs Stil

Where the eye mixes stehen and Stilen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stehen and Stilen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
stehen
6 ch
Stilen

Look-alike desk: stehen vs Stilen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stehen is [ˈʃteːən] while Stilen is [ˈʃtiːlən]. 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 49570, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stehen is recorded at frequency rank #297, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃteːən]. Stilen is at rank #49,273, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtiːlən].

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 49570, this pair ranks #1,206,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stehen vs Stilen

Shared letters: enst. Private to "stehen": h. Private to "Stilen": il.

"stehen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "Stilen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stehen ← sethen · sstehen · steehn · stehenn · stehhen · stehne · stheen · sttehen
  • Stilen ← sitlen · sstilen · stieln · stilenn · stilne · stlien · sttilen · tsilen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stehen" and "Stilen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "stehen" is a verb and "Stilen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "stehen" vs "Stilen" - which ranks higher?
"stehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #297 in our German list, against #49,273 for "Stilen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Stilen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,206,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stehen" and "Stilen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Stilen 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 #1,206,465 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