störtevsStürmeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#23,328
“störte” frequency rank
#21,444
“Stürme” frequency rank
44772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature störte Stürme
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs stören Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Sturm

Where the eye mixes störte and Stürme

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

6 ch
störte
6 ch
Stürme

Why the eye confuses störte with Stürme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: störte is [ˈʃtøːɐ̯tə] while Stürme is [ˈʃtʏʁmə]. 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 44772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

störte is recorded at frequency rank #23,328, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtøːɐ̯tə]. Stürme is at rank #21,444, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʏʁmə].

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 44772, this pair ranks #1,375,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of störte vs Stürme

Shared letters: erst. Private to "störte": ö. Private to "Stürme": mü.

"störte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "Stürme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "störte" and "Stürme" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "störte" is a verb and "Stürme" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "störte" vs "Stürme" - which ranks higher?
"Stürme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,444 in our German list, against #23,328 for "störte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "störte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Stürme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,375,215 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "störte" and "Stürme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "storia vs störte". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,375,215 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