Which to use
“fairen” and “faires” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,424
- “fairen” frequency rank
- #29,118
- “faires” frequency rank
- 40542
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fairen | faires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fair | Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fair |
Where the eye mixes fairen and faires
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fairen and faires follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses fairen with faires
A purely visual mix-up. fairen ([ˈfɛːʁən]) and faires ([ˈfɛːʁəs]) 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 a single letter - n in “fairen” becomes s in “faires”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fairen is recorded at frequency rank #11,424, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɛːʁən]. faires is at rank #29,118, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɛːʁəs].
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 40542, this pair ranks #1,505,450 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fairen vs faires
Shared letters: aefir. Private to "fairen": n. Private to "faires": s.
"fairen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fairen" for "faires" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fairen" vs "faires" - which ranks higher?
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 "fairen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,505,450 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fairen" and "faires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faires vs fairy". 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 #1,505,450 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.