FehdevsfehleWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#30,552
“Fehde” frequency rank
#20,247
“fehle” frequency rank
50799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fehde fehle
Definition kämpferische Auseinandersetzung, um Ansprüche durchzusetzen; früher eine Streithandlung mit Waffengewalt, heute in übertragenem Sinne länger währende Auseinandersetzung mit anderen Mitteln, zum Beispiel mit dem gesprochenen Wort 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fehlen

Where the eye mixes Fehde and fehle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Fehde and fehle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Fehde
5 ch
fehle

Visual trap between Fehde and fehle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Fehde is [ˈfeːdə] while fehle is [ˈfeːlə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “Fehde” becomes l in “fehle”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fehde is recorded at frequency rank #30,552, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfeːdə]. fehle is at rank #20,247, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfeːlə].

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 50799, this pair ranks #1,160,002 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Fehde vs fehle

Shared letters: efh. Private to "Fehde": d. Private to "fehle": l.

"Fehde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fehle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fehde ← efhde · fedhe · fehdde · fehed · fehhde · ffehde · fhede
  • fehle ← efhle · fehel · fehhle · fehlle · felhe · ffehle · fhele

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fehde" and "fehle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fehde" is a noun and "fehle" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Fehde" or "fehle"?
"fehle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,247 in our German list, against #30,552 for "Fehde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Fehde" and "fehle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fehde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fehle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,160,002 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fehde" and "fehle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fehde vs Felge". 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 #1,160,002 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