FalkevsfallsTell them apart

Quick tell: Falke is a noun, falls is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Falke” is a noun and “falls” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,569
“Falke” frequency rank
#698
“falls” frequency rank
20267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Falke falls
Definition mittelgroßer, zum Teil auch kleiner Raubvogel aus der Familie der Falkenartigen für den Fall, dass …; unter der Bedingung, dass …

Where the eye mixes Falke and falls

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Falke
5 ch
falls

Look-alike desk: Falke vs falls

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Falke is [ˈfalkə] while falls is [fals]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Falke is recorded at frequency rank #19,569, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfalkə]. falls is at rank #698, tagged as aconj, pronounced [fals].

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 20267, this pair ranks #1,899,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Falke vs falls

Shared letters: afl. Private to "Falke": ek. Private to "falls": s.

"Falke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "falls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Falkeaflke · fakle · falek · falkke · fallke · ffalke · flake
  • fallsaflls · fallss · fals · falsl · ffalls · flals

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Falke" for "falls" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Falke" is a noun and "falls" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Falke" vs "falls" - which ranks higher?
"falls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #698 in our German list, against #19,569 for "Falke". 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 "Falke" and "falls" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Falke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "falls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,899,534 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Falke" and "falls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Falke vs Felge". 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 #1,899,534 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