fathervsFutterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“father” and “Futter” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,650
“father” frequency rank
#7,175
“Futter” frequency rank
41825
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature father Futter
Definition männlicher Elternteil; Vater Nahrung der Tiere

Where the eye mixes father and Futter

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

6 ch
father
6 ch
Futter

Look-alike desk: father vs Futter

A purely visual mix-up. father ([ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)]) and Futter ([ˈfʊtɐ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41825, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

father is recorded at frequency rank #34,650, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)]. Futter is at rank #7,175, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʊtɐ].

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 41825, this pair ranks #1,467,923 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of father vs Futter

Shared letters: efrt. Private to "father": ah. Private to "Futter": u.

"father" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Futter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fatherafther · fahter · fatehr · fatherr · fathher · fathre · fatther · ffather
  • Futterffutter · ftuter · futer · futetr · futterr · futtre · uftter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "father" for "Futter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)] versus [ˈfʊtɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "father" vs "Futter" - which ranks higher?
"Futter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,175 in our German list, against #34,650 for "father". 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 "father" and "Futter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "father" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Futter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,467,923 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "father" and "Futter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Färber vs father". 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 #1,467,923 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