FährevsfaireWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Fähre is a noun, faire is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Fähre” is a noun and “faire” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,659
“Fähre” frequency rank
#9,714
“faire” frequency rank
20373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fähre faire
Definition spezielles Schiff, das der (gewerbsmäßigen) Beförderung von Personen und/oder Transportmitteln von Ufer zu Ufer dient Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fair

Same sound, different letters: Fähre vs faire

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. Fähre (CVCCV) and faire (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Fähre
5 ch
faire

Homophone desk: Fähre vs faire

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Fähre and faire carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ˈfɛːʁə]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fähre is recorded at frequency rank #10,659, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛːʁə]. faire is at rank #9,714, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɛːʁə].

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 20373, this pair ranks #1,898,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fähre vs faire

Shared letters: efr. Private to "Fähre": hä. Private to "faire": ai.

"Fähre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "faire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faire ← afire · faier · fairre · farie · ffaire · fiare

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fähre" and "faire" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fähre" is a noun and "faire" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Fähre" vs "faire" - which ranks higher?
"faire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,714 in our German list, against #10,659 for "Fähre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fähre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,898,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fähre" and "faire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faire vs friere". 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 #1,898,389 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