fatavsspielsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#45,920
“fata” frequency rank
#5,427
“spiels” frequency rank
51347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fata spiels
Definition die Fee 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spiel

Letter map: fata vs spiels

Shared letters muted; letters that set fata and spiels apart highlighted. No shared letter run. fata runs 4 letters (CVCV) against spiels's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
fata
6 ch
spiels

Grammar separator: fata vs spiels

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fata is anoun and spielsaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fata is recorded at frequency rank #45,920, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. spiels is at rank #5,427, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 51347, this pair ranks #1,138,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fata vs spiels

Shared letters: none. Private to "fata": aft. Private to "spiels": eilps.

"fata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "spiels" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fataafta · faat · fatta · ffata · ftaa
  • spielspsiels · sipels · speils · spiells · spielss · spiesl · spiles · sppiels

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fata" and "spiels" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fata" is a noun and "spiels" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fata" vs "spiels" - which ranks higher?
"spiels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,427 in our German list, against #45,920 for "fata". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "fata" and "spiels". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spiels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,138,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fata" and "spiels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fata vs puzzles". 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 #1,138,973 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