Vater vs vote, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#536
“Vater” frequency rank: #26,228
“vote” frequency rank: 26764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Vater	vote
Definition	männlicher Elternteil	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs voten

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Vater and vote apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

Vater

4 ch

vote

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Vater is [ˈfaːtɐ] while vote is [ˈvoːtə]. 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 26764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Vater is recorded at frequency rank #536, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaːtɐ]. vote is at rank #26,228, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvoːtə].

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 26764, this pair ranks #1,812,773 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Vater vs vote

Shared letters: etv. Private to "Vater": ar. Private to "vote": o.

"Vater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "vote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

Vater ← avter · vaetr · vaterr · vatre · vatter · vtaer · vvater
vote ← ovte · voet · votte · vtoe · vvote

Frequency comparison

Vater#536

vote#26,228

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Vater" and "vote" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Vater" is a noun and "vote" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Vater" or "vote"?

"Vater" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #536 in our German list, against #26,228 for "vote". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Vater vs vote

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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