StundenvsstürzenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#387
“Stunden” frequency rank
#6,362
“stürzen” frequency rank
6749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Stunden stürzen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Stunde eine hilflose, ungewollte Bewegung nach unten ausführen

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Stunden and stürzen apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
Stunden
7 ch
stürzen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stunden is [ˈʃtʊndn̩] while stürzen is [ˈʃtʏʁt͡sn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stunden is recorded at frequency rank #387, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʊndn̩]. stürzen is at rank #6,362, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtʏʁt͡sn̩].

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 6749, this pair ranks #1,990,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Stunden vs stürzen

Shared letters: enst. Private to "Stunden": du. Private to "stürzen": rzü.

"Stunden" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "stürzen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Stundensstunden · stnuden · sttunden · studnen · stundden · stundenn · stundne · stunedn

Frequency comparison

Stunden#387
stürzen#6,362

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Stunden" and "stürzen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stunden" is a noun and "stürzen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Stunden" or "stürzen"?
"Stunden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #387 in our German list, against #6,362 for "stürzen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Stunden vs stürzen

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Stunden”; for a verb, it's “stürzen”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Stunden” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list