FahrtenvsführtenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Fahrten is a noun, führten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Fahrten” is a noun and “führten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,360
“Fahrten” frequency rank
#3,733
“führten” frequency rank
12093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fahrten führten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Fahrt 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs führen

Where the eye mixes Fahrten and führten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Fahrten and führten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
Fahrten
7 ch
führten

Why the eye confuses Fahrten with führten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Fahrten is [ˈfaːɐ̯tən] while führten is [ˈfyːɐ̯tn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “Fahrten” becomes ü in “führten”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fahrten is recorded at frequency rank #8,360, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaːɐ̯tən]. führten is at rank #3,733, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfyːɐ̯tn̩].

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 12093, this pair ranks #1,966,216 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fahrten vs führten

Shared letters: efhnrt. Private to "Fahrten": a. Private to "führten": ü.

"Fahrten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "führten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fahrten ← afhrten · fahhrten · fahretn · fahrrten · fahrtenn · fahrtne · fahrtten · fahtren

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Fahrten" and "führten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fahrten" is a noun and "führten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Fahrten" vs "führten" - which ranks higher?
"führten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,733 in our German list, against #8,360 for "Fahrten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fahrten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "führten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,966,216 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fahrten" and "führten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fahnden vs Fahrten". 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 #1,966,216 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