FäkalienvsFamilienTell them apart

Which to use

“Fäkalien” and “Familien” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,890
“Fäkalien” frequency rank
#1,448
“Familien” frequency rank
45338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fäkalien Familien
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Fäkalie Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Familie

Where the eye mixes Fäkalien and Familien

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

8 ch
Fäkalien
8 ch
Familien

Look-alike desk: Fäkalien vs Familien

A purely visual mix-up. Fäkalien ([fɛˈkaːli̯ən]) and Familien ([faˈmiːli̯ən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fäkalien is recorded at frequency rank #43,890, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɛˈkaːli̯ən]. Familien is at rank #1,448, tagged as anoun, pronounced [faˈmiːli̯ən].

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 45338, this pair ranks #1,356,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Fäkalien vs Familien

Shared letters: aefiln. Private to "Fäkalien": kä. Private to "Familien": m.

"Fäkalien" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "Familien" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Familien ← afmilien · faimlien · famiilen · familein · familienn · familine · famillien · famliien

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Fäkalien" for "Familien" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([fɛˈkaːli̯ən] versus [faˈmiːli̯ən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Fäkalien" or "Familien" show up more?
"Familien" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,448 in our German list, against #43,890 for "Fäkalien". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Fäkalien" and "Familien" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fäkalien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Familien" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,356,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fäkalien" and "Familien" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fäkalien vs fatalen". 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 #1,356,440 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