fiesevsfiesenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,334
“fiese” frequency rank
#28,190
“fiesen” frequency rank
50524
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fiese fiesen
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fies Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fies

Where the eye mixes fiese and fiesen

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

5 ch
fiese
6 ch
fiesen

Visual trap between fiese and fiesen

A purely visual mix-up. fiese ([ˈfiːzə]) and fiesen ([ˈfiːzn̩]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “fiese” sits inside “fiesen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fiese is recorded at frequency rank #22,334, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfiːzə]. fiesen is at rank #28,190, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfiːzn̩].

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 50524, this pair ranks #1,170,468 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fiese vs fiesen

Shared letters: efis. Private to "fiese": -. Private to "fiesen": n.

"fiese" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "fiesen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiesefeise · ffiese · fiees · fiesse · fisee · ifese
  • fiesenfeisen · ffiesen · fieesn · fiesenn · fiesne · fiessen · fiseen · ifesen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fiese" for "fiesen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfiːzə] versus [ˈfiːzn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "fiese" or "fiesen" show up more?
"fiese" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,334 in our German list, against #28,190 for "fiesen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fiese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fiesen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,170,468 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fiese" and "fiesen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fiesen vs Friese". 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 #1,170,468 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