FackvsfayTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,377
“Fack” frequency rank
#46,636
“fay” frequency rank
94013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fack fay
Definition Fach in einem Schrank, Regal oder Kasten eine Fee

Letter map: Fack vs fay

Shared letters muted; letters that set Fack and fay apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Fack runs 4 letters (CVCC) against fay's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Fack
3 ch
fay

Corpus notes: Fack and fay

Fack and fay are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fack is recorded at frequency rank #47,377, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. fay is at rank #46,636, tagged as anoun, pronounced [feɪ].

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 94013, this pair ranks #19,236 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Fack vs fay

Shared letters: af. Private to "Fack": ck. Private to "fay": y.

"Fack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fay" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fack ← afck · facck · fackk · fakc · fcak · ffack

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Fack" and "fay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "Fack" or "fay"?
"fay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,636 in our German list, against #47,377 for "Fack". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Fack" and "fay". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,236 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fack" and "fay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fack vs puzzles". 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 #19,236 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