fallendevsfolgendeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,035
“fallende” frequency rank
#1,222
“folgende” frequency rank
34257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fallende folgende
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fallend Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs folgend

Where the eye mixes fallende and folgende

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

8 ch
fallende
8 ch
folgende

Why the eye confuses fallende with folgende

A purely visual mix-up. fallende ([ˈfaləndə]) and folgende ([ˈfɔlɡn̩də]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fallende is recorded at frequency rank #33,035, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfaləndə]. folgende is at rank #1,222, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɔlɡn̩də].

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 34257, this pair ranks #1,667,462 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fallende vs folgende

Shared letters: defln. Private to "fallende": a. Private to "folgende": go.

"fallende" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "folgende" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fallendeafllende · falelnde · falende · falledne · fallendde · fallened · fallennde · fallnede
  • folgendeffolgende · flogende · foglende · folegnde · folgedne · folgendde · folgened · folgennde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fallende" for "folgende" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfaləndə] versus [ˈfɔlɡn̩də]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "fallende" or "folgende" show up more?
"folgende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,222 in our German list, against #33,035 for "fallende". 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 "fallende" and "folgende" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fallende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folgende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,667,462 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fallende" and "folgende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fallende vs fallenden". 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 #1,667,462 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