StürmenvsstürmtenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#11,761
“Stürmen” frequency rank
#32,296
“stürmten” frequency rank
44057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Stürmen stürmten
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Sturm 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs stürmen

Where the eye mixes Stürmen and stürmten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. Stürmen runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against stürmten's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Stürmen
8 ch
stürmten

Look-alike desk: Stürmen vs stürmten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stürmen is [ˈʃtʏʁmən] while stürmten is [ˈʃtʏʁmtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 44057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stürmen is recorded at frequency rank #11,761, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃtʏʁmən]. 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 44057, this pair ranks #1,398,417 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Stürmen vs stürmten

Shared letters: emnrstü. Private to "Stürmen": -. Private to "stürmten": -.

"Stürmen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "stürmten" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Stürmen" and "stürmten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stürmen" is a noun and "stürmten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Stürmen" or "stürmten" show up more?
"Stürmen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,761 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.

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 "Stürmen" 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 #1,398,417 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Stürmen" and "stürmten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stürmten vs Stuten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,398,417 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