fiesenvsfreienWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fiesen is a adjective, freien is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fiesen” is an adjective and “freien” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,190
“fiesen” frequency rank
#1,131
“freien” frequency rank
29321
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fiesen freien
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs fies jemanden zum Mann oder zur Frau nehmen

Where the eye mixes fiesen and freien

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

6 ch
fiesen
6 ch
freien

Look-alike desk: fiesen vs freien

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fiesen is [ˈfiːzn̩] while freien is [ˈfʁaɪ̯ən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fiesen is recorded at frequency rank #28,190, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfiːzn̩]. freien is at rank #1,131, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪ̯ən].

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 29321, this pair ranks #1,768,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fiesen vs freien

Shared letters: efin. Private to "fiesen": s. Private to "freien": r.

"fiesen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "freien" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiesenfeisen · ffiesen · fieesn · fiesenn · fiesne · fiessen · fiseen · ifesen
  • freienffreien · freein · freienn · freine · frieen · frreien · rfeien

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fiesen" for "freien" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fiesen" is an adjective and "freien" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fiesen" or "freien"?
"freien" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,131 in our German list, against #28,190 for "fiesen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fiesen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "freien" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,768,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fiesen" and "freien" 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 #1,768,991 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