fachenvsFaktenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#29,116
“fachen” frequency rank
#2,647
“Fakten” frequency rank
31763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fachen Fakten
Definition machen, dass es (gut) brennt Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Faktum

Where the eye mixes fachen and Fakten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fachen and Fakten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
fachen
6 ch
Fakten

Visual trap between fachen and Fakten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fachen is [ˈfaxn̩] while Fakten is [ˈfaktn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fachen is recorded at frequency rank #29,116, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfaxn̩]. Fakten is at rank #2,647, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaktn̩].

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 31763, this pair ranks #1,721,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fachen vs Fakten

Shared letters: aefn. Private to "fachen": ch. Private to "Fakten": kt.

"fachen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Fakten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fachen ← afchen · facchen · facehn · fachenn · fachhen · fachne · fahcen · fcahen
  • Fakten ← afkten · faketn · fakkten · faktenn · faktne · faktten · fatken · ffakten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fachen" for "Fakten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fachen" is a verb and "Fakten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "fachen" or "Fakten" show up more?
"Fakten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,647 in our German list, against #29,116 for "fachen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fachen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fakten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,721,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fachen" and "Fakten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fachen vs Fachs". 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 #1,721,571 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