Which to use
“fear” is a noun and “Föhr” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,122
- “fear” frequency rank
- #45,948
- “Föhr” frequency rank
- 75070
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fear | Föhr |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (die Emotion) Furcht | eine nordfriesische Insel vor der Westküste Schleswig-Holsteins |
Where the eye mixes fear and Föhr
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fear (CVVC) and Föhr (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: fear vs Föhr
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fear is [fɪə] while Föhr is [føːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fear is recorded at frequency rank #29,122, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɪə]. Föhr is at rank #45,948, tagged as aname, pronounced [føːɐ̯].
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 75070, this pair ranks #317,209 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fear vs Föhr
Shared letters: fr. Private to "fear": ae. Private to "Föhr": hö.
"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "Föhr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fear ← efar · faer · fearr · fera · ffear
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fear" for "Föhr" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fear" vs "Föhr" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Föhr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,209 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fear" and "Föhr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fock vs Föhr". 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 #317,209 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.