facevsFansConfusable pair

Which to use

“face” and “Fans” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,650
“face” frequency rank
#1,128
“Fans” frequency rank
11778
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature face Fans
Definition der vordere Teil des Kopfes; Antlitz, Angesicht, Gesicht, Visage Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Fan

Where the eye mixes face and Fans

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
face
4 ch
Fans

Visual trap between face and Fans

A purely visual mix-up. face ([feɪs]) and Fans ([fɛns]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

face is recorded at frequency rank #10,650, classified as anoun, pronounced [feɪs]. Fans is at rank #1,128, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɛns].

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 11778, this pair ranks #1,967,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of face vs Fans

Shared letters: af. Private to "face": ce. Private to "Fans": ns.

"face" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Fans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faceafce · facce · faec · fcae · fface
  • Fansafns · fanns · fanss · fasn · ffans · fnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "face" for "Fans" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([feɪs] versus [fɛns]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "face" vs "Fans" - which ranks higher?
"Fans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,128 in our German list, against #10,650 for "face". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "face" and "Fans" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "face" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,967,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "face" and "Fans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "face vs Fock". 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 #1,967,952 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