FelgenvsfetzenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,289
“Felgen” frequency rank
#18,885
“fetzen” frequency rank
46174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Felgen fetzen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Felge sich sehr heftig streiten

Where the eye mixes Felgen and fetzen

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

6 ch
Felgen
6 ch
fetzen

Visual trap between Felgen and fetzen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Felgen is [ˈfɛlɡn̩] while fetzen is [ˈfɛt͡sn̩]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Felgen is recorded at frequency rank #27,289, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛlɡn̩]. fetzen is at rank #18,885, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfɛt͡sn̩].

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 46174, this pair ranks #1,328,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Felgen vs fetzen

Shared letters: efn. Private to "Felgen": gl. Private to "fetzen": tz.

"Felgen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "fetzen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Felgen ← eflgen · feglen · felegn · felgenn · felggen · felgne · fellgen · ffelgen
  • fetzen ← eftzen · fetezn · fettzen · fetzenn · fetzne · fetzzen · fezten · ffetzen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Felgen" and "fetzen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Felgen" is a noun and "fetzen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Felgen" or "fetzen"?
"fetzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,885 in our German list, against #27,289 for "Felgen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Felgen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fetzen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,328,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Felgen" and "fetzen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Felge vs Felgen". 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 #1,328,042 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