Which to use
“fail” is a noun and “faule” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,286
- “fail” frequency rank
- #19,209
- “faule” frequency rank
- 46495
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | faule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ein Ausfall, ein Fehlschlag | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs faul |
Where the eye mixes fail and faule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fail runs 4 letters (CVVC) against faule's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fail vs faule
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fail is [feɪl] while faule is [ˈfaʊ̯lə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fail is recorded at frequency rank #27,286, classified as anoun, pronounced [feɪl]. faule is at rank #19,209, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfaʊ̯lə].
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 46495, this pair ranks #1,317,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs faule
Shared letters: afl. Private to "fail": i. Private to "faule": eu.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "faule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fail" for "faule" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fail" vs "faule" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fail" and "faule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,317,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "faule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fail vs fils". 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 #1,317,098 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.