Which to use
“stehle” is a verb and “Stühle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,045
- “stehle” frequency rank
- #10,574
- “Stühle” frequency rank
- 49619
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stehle | Stühle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs stehlen | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Stuhl |
Where the eye mixes stehle and Stühle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. stehle and Stühle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between stehle and Stühle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stehle is [ˈʃteːlə] while Stühle is [ˈʃtyːlə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “stehle” becomes ü in “Stühle”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stehle is recorded at frequency rank #39,045, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃteːlə]. Stühle is at rank #10,574, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtyːlə].
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 49619, this pair ranks #1,204,619 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stehle vs Stühle
Shared letters: ehlst. Private to "stehle": -. Private to "Stühle": ü.
"stehle" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "Stühle" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- stehle ← sethle · sstehle · stehel · stehhle · stehlle · stelhe · sthele · sttehle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stehle" for "Stühle" ever safe?
Frequency check: "stehle" vs "Stühle" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "stehle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Stühle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,204,619 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stehle" and "Stühle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stehle vs Stuhls". 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 #1,204,619 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.