stehnvssteigWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“stehn” and “steig” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,938
“stehn” frequency rank
#17,420
“steig” frequency rank
42358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stehn steig
Definition stehen 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs steigen

Where the eye mixes stehn and steig

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

5 ch
stehn
5 ch
steig

Visual trap between stehn and steig

A purely visual mix-up. stehn ([ʃteːn]) and steig ([ʃtaɪ̯k]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stehn is recorded at frequency rank #24,938, classified as averb, pronounced [ʃteːn]. steig is at rank #17,420, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃtaɪ̯k].

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 42358, this pair ranks #1,451,814 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stehn vs steig

Shared letters: est. Private to "stehn": hn. Private to "steig": gi.

"stehn" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "steig" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stehnsethn · sstehn · stehhn · stehnn · stenh · sthen · sttehn · tsehn
  • steigsetig · ssteig · stegi · steigg · tseig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stehn" for "steig" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ʃteːn] versus [ʃtaɪ̯k]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stehn" or "steig"?
"steig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,420 in our German list, against #24,938 for "stehn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "stehn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "steig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,451,814 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stehn" and "steig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stehn 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 #1,451,814 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