FeiervsfesterTell them apart

Quick tell: Feier is a noun, fester is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Feier” is a noun and “fester” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,441
“Feier” frequency rank
#6,534
“fester” frequency rank
9975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Feier fester
Definition festliche Veranstaltung aus einem bestimmten Anlass Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fest

Where the eye mixes Feier and fester

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Feier
6 ch
fester

Look-alike desk: Feier vs fester

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Feier is [ˈfaɪ̯ɐ] while fester is [ˈfɛstɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Feier is recorded at frequency rank #3,441, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfaɪ̯ɐ]. fester is at rank #6,534, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfɛstɐ].

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 9975, this pair ranks #1,977,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Feier vs fester

Shared letters: efr. Private to "Feier": i. Private to "fester": st.

"Feier" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "fester" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Feierefier · feeir · feierr · feire · ffeier · fieer
  • festerefster · fesetr · fesster · festerr · festre · festter · fetser · ffester

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Feier" and "fester" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Feier" is a noun and "fester" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Feier" or "fester" show up more?
"Feier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,441 in our German list, against #6,534 for "fester". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Feier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fester" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Feier" and "fester" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fessel vs fester". 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 #1,977,385 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