fändevsfauleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fände is a verb, faule is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fände” is a verb and “faule” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,197
“fände” frequency rank
#19,209
“faule” frequency rank
28406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fände faule
Definition 1. Person Singular Konjunktiv II Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs finden Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs faul

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fände and faule apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
fände
5 ch
faule

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fände is [ˈfɛndə] while faule is [ˈfaʊ̯lə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fände is recorded at frequency rank #9,197, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfɛndə]. faule is at rank #19,209, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfaʊ̯lə].

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 28406, this pair ranks #1,785,351 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fände vs faule

Shared letters: ef. Private to "fände": dnä. Private to "faule": alu.

"fände" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "faule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fauleafule · falue · fauel · faulle · ffaule · fuale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fände" and "faule" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fände" is a verb and "faule" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fände" or "faule"?
"fände" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,197 in our German list, against #19,209 for "faule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list