feelvsfehltTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,800
“feel” frequency rank
#950
“fehlt” frequency rank
15750
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feel fehlt
Definition fühlen, spüren Imperativ Plural (ihr) des Verbs fehlen

Where the eye mixes feel and fehlt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
feel
5 ch
fehlt

Look-alike desk: feel vs fehlt

A purely visual mix-up. feel ([fiːl]) and fehlt ([feːlt]) 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 15750, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feel is recorded at frequency rank #14,800, classified as averb, pronounced [fiːl]. fehlt is at rank #950, tagged as averb, pronounced [feːlt].

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 15750, this pair ranks #1,941,436 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feel vs fehlt

Shared letters: efl. Private to "feel": -. Private to "fehlt": ht.

"feel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fehlt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feelefel · feell · fele · ffeel
  • fehltefhlt · fehhlt · fehllt · fehltt · fehtl · felht · ffehlt · fhelt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feel" and "fehlt" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fiːl] versus [feːlt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "feel" or "fehlt"?
"fehlt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #950 in our German list, against #14,800 for "feel". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fehlt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,941,436 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feel" and "fehlt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feel vs feels". 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 #1,941,436 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