StürmevsstürmtenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,444
“Stürme” frequency rank
#32,296
“stürmten” frequency rank
53740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Stürme stürmten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Sturm 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs stürmen

Where the eye mixes Stürme and stürmten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Stürme
8 ch
stürmten

Visual trap between Stürme and stürmten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stürme is [ˈʃtʏʁmə] while stürmten is [ˈʃtʏʁmtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stürme is recorded at frequency rank #21,444, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʏʁmə]. stürmten is at rank #32,296, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtʏʁmtn̩].

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 53740, this pair ranks #1,046,147 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Stürme vs stürmten

Shared letters: emrstü. Private to "Stürme": -. Private to "stürmten": n.

"Stürme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "stürmten" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Stürme" and "stürmten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stürme" is a noun and "stürmten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Stürme" vs "stürmten" - which ranks higher?
"Stürme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,444 in our German list, against #32,296 for "stürmten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Stürme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stürmten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,046,147 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Stürme" and "stürmten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stürmten vs Stuten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,046,147 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