FaltevsfragteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Falte is a noun, fragte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Falte” is a noun and “fragte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,524
“Falte” frequency rank
#2,823
“fragte” frequency rank
43347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Falte fragte
Definition längliche Unebenheit in ebenen, glatten Oberflächen insbesondere bei textilen Stoffen, Papier, Haut und Ähnlichem 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs fragen

Where the eye mixes Falte and fragte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Falte
6 ch
fragte

Why the eye confuses Falte with fragte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Falte is [ˈfaltə] while fragte is [ˈfʁaːktə]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Falte is recorded at frequency rank #40,524, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaltə]. fragte is at rank #2,823, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʁaːktə].

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 43347, this pair ranks #1,420,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Falte vs fragte

Shared letters: aeft. Private to "Falte": l. Private to "fragte": gr.

"Falte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fragte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Falteaflte · falet · fallte · faltte · fatle · ffalte · flate
  • fragtefargte · ffragte · fraget · fraggte · fragtte · fratge · frgate · frragte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Falte" and "fragte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Falte" is a noun and "fragte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Falte" vs "fragte" - which ranks higher?
"fragte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,823 in our German list, against #40,524 for "Falte". 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 "Falte" and "fragte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Falte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fragte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,420,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Falte" and "fragte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Falte 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 #1,420,952 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