fattig som en kyrkråtta
The verdict
“fattig som en kyrkråtta” is outside the top-ranked German vocabulary, used as a phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 23
- letters
Dominant Wiktionary sense: sehr arm; arm sein wie eine Kirchenmaus; in dürftigen Verhältnissen leben; äußerst arm; „arm wie eine Kirchenratte sein“
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fattig som en kyrkråtta |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [`vɑːra `fatːɪ ˈsɔmː ˈɛ̝nː `ɕʏrkˌrɔtːa] |
| Letters | 23 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fattig som en kyrkråtta” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for fattig som en kyrkråtta is 23 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [`vɑːra `fatːɪ ˈsɔmː ˈɛ̝nː `ɕʏrkˌrɔtːa]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "sehr arm; arm sein wie eine Kirchenmaus; in dürftigen Verhältnissen leben; äußerst arm; „arm wie eine Kirchenratte sein“".
No misspelling variants are generated for fattig som en kyrkråtta in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is fattig som en kyrkråtta, spelled F-A-T-T-I-G- -S-O-M- -E-N- -K-Y-R-K-R-Å-T-T-A, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1sehr arm; arm sein wie eine Kirchenmaus; in dürftigen Verhältnissen leben; äußerst arm; „arm wie eine Kirchenratte sein“
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “fattig som en kyrkråtta, German word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/de/wort/fattig-som-en-kyrkratta
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “fattig som en kyrkråtta”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is F-A-T-T-I-G- -S-O-M- -E-N- -K-Y-R-K-R-Å-T-T-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [`vɑːra `fatːɪ ˈsɔmː ˈɛ̝nː `ɕʏrkˌrɔtːa] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Nearby German words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our German index: