Which to use
“fay” and “fear” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,636
- “fay” frequency rank
- #29,122
- “fear” frequency rank
- 75758
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fay | fear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine Fee | (die Emotion) Furcht |
Where the eye mixes fay and fear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fay runs 3 letters (CVV) against fear's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fay and fear
A purely visual mix-up. fay ([feɪ]) and fear ([fɪə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fay is recorded at frequency rank #46,636, classified as anoun, pronounced [feɪ]. fear is at rank #29,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɪə].
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 75758, this pair ranks #300,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fay vs fear
Shared letters: af. Private to "fay": y. Private to "fear": er.
"fay" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fear ← efar · faer · fearr · fera · ffear
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fay" and "fear" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "fay" or "fear" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,098 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fay" and "fear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fairy vs fay". 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 #300,098 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.