Which to use
“tail” is a noun and “täte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,881
- “tail” frequency rank
- #17,434
- “täte” frequency rank
- 58315
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tail | täte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Schwanz | 1. Person Singular Konjunktiv Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs tun |
Where the eye mixes tail and täte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. tail (CVVC) and täte (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between tail and täte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tail is [teɪl] while täte is [ˈtɛːtə]. 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 58315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tail is recorded at frequency rank #40,881, classified as anoun, pronounced [teɪl]. täte is at rank #17,434, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈtɛːtə].
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 58315, this pair ranks #867,562 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tail vs täte
Shared letters: t. Private to "tail": ail. Private to "täte": eä.
"tail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "täte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tail ← atil · taill · tali · tial · ttail
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tail" and "täte" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "tail" or "täte" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tail" and "täte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "täte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #867,562 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tail" and "täte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tail vs taut". 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 #867,562 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.