feelsvsfilsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,663
“feels” frequency rank
#49,670
“fils” frequency rank
99333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feels fils
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs feel männlicher Nachkomme: Sohn

Letter map: feels vs fils

Shared letters muted; letters that set feels and fils apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. feels runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against fils's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
feels
4 ch
fils

Grammar separator: feels vs fils

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: feels is averb and filsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 99333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feels is recorded at frequency rank #49,663, classified as averb, pronounced […]. fils is at rank #49,670, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fis].

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 99333, this pair ranks #293 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feels vs fils

Shared letters: fls. Private to "feels": e. Private to "fils": i.

"feels" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "fils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feels ← efels · feells · feelss · feesl · feles · ffeels
  • fils ← ffils · fills · filss · fisl · flis · ifls

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feels" and "fils" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feels" is a verb and "fils" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "feels" or "fils" show up more?
"feels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #49,663 in our German list, against #49,670 for "fils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "feels" vs "fils" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feels" and "fils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feels 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 #293 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