FellevsfolieTell them apart

Which to use

“Felle” and “folie” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,039
“Felle” frequency rank
#13,826
“folie” frequency rank
44865
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Felle folie
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Fell Irrsinn, Tollheit, Verrücktheit, Wahnsinn, Wahnwitz

Where the eye mixes Felle and folie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Felle (CVCCV) and folie (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Felle
5 ch
folie

Visual trap between Felle and folie

A purely visual mix-up. Felle ([ˈfɛlə]) and folie ([fɔ.li]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Felle is recorded at frequency rank #31,039, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛlə]. folie is at rank #13,826, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɔ.li].

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 44865, this pair ranks #1,372,176 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Felle vs folie

Shared letters: efl. Private to "Felle": -. Private to "folie": io.

"Felle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "folie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Felle ← eflle · felel · ffelle · flele
  • folie ← ffolie · floie · foile · folei · follie · oflie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Felle" for "folie" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɛlə] versus [fɔ.li]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Felle" vs "folie" - which ranks higher?
"folie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,826 in our German list, against #31,039 for "Felle". 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 "Felle" and "folie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Felle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,372,176 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Felle" and "folie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Felge vs Felle". 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 #1,372,176 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