falsevsFäusteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#23,516
“false” frequency rank
#26,421
“Fäuste” frequency rank
49937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature false Fäuste
Definition falsch Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Faust

Where the eye mixes false and Fäuste

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

5 ch
false
6 ch
Fäuste

Visual trap between false and Fäuste

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: false is [fɔːls] while Fäuste is [ˈfɔɪ̯stə]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

false is recorded at frequency rank #23,516, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɔːls]. Fäuste is at rank #26,421, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɔɪ̯stə].

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 49937, this pair ranks #1,192,744 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of false vs Fäuste

Shared letters: efs. Private to "false": al. Private to "Fäuste": tuä.

"false" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Fäuste" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falseaflse · falsse · fasle · ffalse · flase

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "false" and "Fäuste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "false" is an adjective and "Fäuste" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "false" vs "Fäuste" - which ranks higher?
"false" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,516 in our German list, against #26,421 for "Fäuste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "false" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fäuste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,192,744 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "false" and "Fäuste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "false vs fils". 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 #1,192,744 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