FährevsFalteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,659
“Fähre” frequency rank
#40,524
“Falte” frequency rank
51183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fähre Falte
Definition spezielles Schiff, das der (gewerbsmäßigen) Beförderung von Personen und/oder Transportmitteln von Ufer zu Ufer dient längliche Unebenheit in ebenen, glatten Oberflächen insbesondere bei textilen Stoffen, Papier, Haut und Ähnlichem

Where the eye mixes Fähre and Falte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Fähre and Falte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Fähre
5 ch
Falte

Look-alike desk: Fähre vs Falte

A purely visual mix-up. Fähre ([ˈfɛːʁə]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51183, 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]. 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 51183, this pair ranks #1,145,307 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Fähre vs Falte

Shared letters: ef. Private to "Fähre": hrä. Private to "Falte": alt.

"Fähre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Falte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Falteaflte · falet · fallte · faltte · fatle · ffalte · flate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Fähre" and "Falte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɛːʁə] versus [ˈfaltə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Fähre" or "Falte" show up more?
"Fähre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,659 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Fähre" and "Falte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fähre" 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 #1,145,307 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fähre" 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 #1,145,307 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