factvsFalteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,207
“fact” frequency rank
#40,524
“Falte” frequency rank
59731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fact Falte
Definition Fakt, Tatsache längliche Unebenheit in ebenen, glatten Oberflächen insbesondere bei textilen Stoffen, Papier, Haut und Ähnlichem

Where the eye mixes fact and Falte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fact
5 ch
Falte

Why the eye confuses fact with Falte

A purely visual mix-up. fact ([fækt]) and Falte ([ˈfaltə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fact is recorded at frequency rank #19,207, classified as anoun, pronounced [fækt]. Falte is at rank #40,524, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaltə].

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 59731, this pair ranks #813,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fact vs Falte

Shared letters: aft. Private to "fact": c. Private to "Falte": el.

"fact" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Falte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • factafct · facct · factt · fatc · fcat · ffact
  • Falteaflte · falet · fallte · faltte · fatle · ffalte · flate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fact" and "Falte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fækt] versus [ˈfaltə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "fact" or "Falte" show up more?
"fact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,207 in our German list, against #40,524 for "Falte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Falte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #813,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fact" and "Falte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Falte vs Felge". 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 #813,517 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