FestvsFestesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#542
“Fest” frequency rank
#9,901
“Festes” frequency rank
10443
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fest Festes
Definition größere Feier Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Fest

Where the eye mixes Fest and Festes

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

4 ch
Fest
6 ch
Festes

Visual trap between Fest and Festes

A purely visual mix-up. Fest ([fɛst]) and Festes ([ˈfɛstəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Fest” sits inside “Festes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fest is recorded at frequency rank #542, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɛst]. Festes is at rank #9,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛstəs].

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 10443, this pair ranks #1,975,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fest vs Festes

Shared letters: efst. Private to "Fest": -. Private to "Festes": -.

"Fest" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Festes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Festefst · fesst · festt · fets · ffest · fset
  • Festesefstes · fesets · fesstes · festess · festse · festtes · fetses · ffestes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fest" and "Festes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([fɛst] versus [ˈfɛstəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Fest" vs "Festes" - which ranks higher?
"Fest" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #542 in our German list, against #9,901 for "Festes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Festes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,975,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fest" and "Festes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fessel vs Festes". 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 #1,975,110 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