FelgenvsfolgenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,289
“Felgen” frequency rank
#566
“folgen” frequency rank
27855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Felgen folgen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Felge jemandem oder etwas hinterhergehen oder auch hinterherfahren

Where the eye mixes Felgen and folgen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Felgen and folgen 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
folgen

Look-alike desk: Felgen vs folgen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Felgen is [ˈfɛlɡn̩] while folgen is [ˈfɔlɡn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “Felgen” becomes o in “folgen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27855, 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]. folgen is at rank #566, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfɔlɡn̩].

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 27855, this pair ranks #1,794,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Felgen vs folgen

Shared letters: efgln. Private to "Felgen": -. Private to "folgen": o.

"Felgen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "folgen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Felgen ← eflgen · feglen · felegn · felgenn · felggen · felgne · fellgen · ffelgen
  • folgen ← ffolgen · foglen · folegn · folgenn · folggen · folgne · follgen · oflgen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Felgen" and "folgen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Felgen" is a noun and "folgen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Felgen" or "folgen"?
"folgen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #566 in our German list, against #27,289 for "Felgen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Felgen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folgen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,794,724 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Felgen" and "folgen" 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 #1,794,724 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