FäkalienvsfatalenTell them apart

Quick tell: Fäkalien is a noun, fatalen is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Fäkalien” is a noun and “fatalen” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,890
“Fäkalien” frequency rank
#37,512
“fatalen” frequency rank
81402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fäkalien fatalen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Fäkalie Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fatal

Where the eye mixes Fäkalien and fatalen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Fäkalien runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against fatalen's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
Fäkalien
7 ch
fatalen

Visual trap between Fäkalien and fatalen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Fäkalien is [fɛˈkaːli̯ən] while fatalen is [faˈtaːlən]. 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 81402, 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]. fatalen is at rank #37,512, tagged as anadj, pronounced [faˈtaːlən].

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 81402, this pair ranks #176,523 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Fäkalien vs fatalen

Shared letters: aefln. Private to "Fäkalien": ikä. Private to "fatalen": t.

"Fäkalien" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "fatalen" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fatalen ← aftalen · faatlen · fataeln · fatalenn · fatallen · fatalne · fatlaen · fattalen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fäkalien" and "fatalen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fäkalien" is a noun and "fatalen" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Fäkalien" vs "fatalen" - which ranks higher?
"fatalen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,512 in our German list, against #43,890 for "Fäkalien". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Fäkalien" and "fatalen" 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 "fatalen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #176,523 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fäkalien" and "fatalen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fatale 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 #176,523 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