Which to use
“fail” is a noun and “fol” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,286
- “fail” frequency rank
- #34,656
- “fol” frequency rank
- 61942
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | fol |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ein Ausfall, ein Fehlschlag | 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Nichtadmirativ Aktiv des Verbs flas ‚sprechen, reden‘ |
Letter map: fail vs fol
Shared letters muted; letters that set fail and fol apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fail runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fol's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for fail / fol
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fail is anoun and folaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61942, 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]. fol is at rank #34,656, tagged as averb, pronounced […].
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 61942, this pair ranks #731,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs fol
Shared letters: fl. Private to "fail": ai. Private to "fol": o.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fol" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fail ← afil · faill · fali · ffail · fial
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fail" and "fol" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fail" vs "fol" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "fail" vs "fol" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "fail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fol" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #731,021 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "fol" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fol vs puzzles". 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 #731,021 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.