Which to use
“fail” and “fay” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,286
- “fail” frequency rank
- #46,636
- “fay” frequency rank
- 73922
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | fay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ein Ausfall, ein Fehlschlag | eine Fee |
Where the eye mixes fail and fay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fail runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fay's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fail and fay
A purely visual mix-up. fail ([feɪl]) and fay ([feɪ]) 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 73922, 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]. fay is at rank #46,636, tagged as anoun, pronounced [feɪ].
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 73922, this pair ranks #347,333 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs fay
Shared letters: af. Private to "fail": il. Private to "fay": y.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fail ← afil · faill · fali · ffail · fial
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fail" and "fay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "fail" or "fay" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fail" and "fay" 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 "fay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #347,333 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "fay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fairy vs fay". 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 #347,333 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.