falschvsFroschWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: falsch is a adjective, Frosch is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#810
“falsch” frequency rank
#11,054
“Frosch” frequency rank
11864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falsch Frosch
Definition unrichtig (durch Irrtum oder Unwissenheit), tatsächlich anders grün- oder bräunlich gefärbte, schwanzlose Amphibie mit überlangen, hinteren Sprungbeinen, die laute Quaktöne hervor bringt

Where the eye mixes falsch and Frosch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. falsch (CVCCCC) and Frosch (CCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
falsch
6 ch
Frosch

Look-alike desk: falsch vs Frosch

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: falsch is [falʃ] while Frosch is [fʁɔʃ]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falsch is recorded at frequency rank #810, classified as anadj, pronounced [falʃ]. Frosch is at rank #11,054, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fʁɔʃ].

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 11864, this pair ranks #1,967,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of falsch vs Frosch

Shared letters: cfhs. Private to "falsch": al. Private to "Frosch": or.

"falsch" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC  ·  "Frosch" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falschaflsch · falcsh · fallsch · falscch · falschh · falshc · falssch · faslch
  • Froschffrosch · frocsh · froscch · froschh · froshc · frossch · frrosch · frsoch

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "falsch" for "Frosch" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "falsch" is an adjective and "Frosch" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "falsch" or "Frosch"?
"falsch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #810 in our German list, against #11,054 for "Frosch". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "falsch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Frosch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,967,489 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falsch" and "Frosch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Frosch vs Fröschen". 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 #1,967,489 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