femmevsfrommeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,585
“femme” frequency rank
#27,308
“fromme” frequency rank
60893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature femme fromme
Definition sich betont feminin gebende Lesbe: Femme Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fromm

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set femme and fromme apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
femme
6 ch
fromme

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: femme is [fɛm] while fromme is [ˈfʁɔmə]. 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 60893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

femme is recorded at frequency rank #33,585, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɛm]. fromme is at rank #27,308, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁɔmə].

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 60893, this pair ranks #769,973 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of femme vs fromme

Shared letters: efm. Private to "femme": -. Private to "fromme": or.

"femme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fromme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • femmeefmme · feme · femem · ffemme · fmeme
  • frommeffromme · formme · frmome · frome · fromem · frromme · rfomme

Frequency comparison

femme#33,585
fromme#27,308

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "femme" and "fromme" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "femme" is a noun and "fromme" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "femme" or "fromme"?
"fromme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,308 in our German list, against #33,585 for "femme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering femme vs fromme

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “femme”; for an adjective, it's “fromme”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “femme” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list