fachenvsfrühenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fachen is a verb, frühen is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#29,116
“fachen” frequency rank
#2,025
“frühen” frequency rank
31141
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fachen frühen
Definition machen, dass es (gut) brennt Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fachen and frühen apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
fachen
6 ch
frühen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fachen is [ˈfaxn̩] while frühen is [ˈfʁyːən]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31141, 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]. frühen is at rank #2,025, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːən].

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 31141, this pair ranks #1,734,009 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fachen vs frühen

Shared letters: efhn. Private to "fachen": ac. Private to "frühen": .

"fachen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "frühen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fachenafchen · facchen · facehn · fachenn · fachhen · fachne · fahcen · fcahen

Frequency comparison

fachen#29,116
frühen#2,025

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fachen" and "frühen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fachen" is a verb and "frühen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fachen" or "frühen"?
"frühen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,025 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.

Remembering fachen vs frühen

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list