FiletvsfolgtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Filet is a noun, folgt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Filet” is a noun and “folgt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,889
“Filet” frequency rank
#1,077
“folgt” frequency rank
49966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Filet folgt
Definition schmales, meist zartes Fleischstück von Rind, Schwein, Huhn oder entgrätetem Fisch 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs folgen

Where the eye mixes Filet and folgt

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

5 ch
Filet
5 ch
folgt

Visual trap between Filet and folgt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Filet is [fiˈleː] while folgt is [fɔlkt]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Filet is recorded at frequency rank #48,889, classified as anoun, pronounced [fiˈleː]. folgt is at rank #1,077, tagged as averb, pronounced [fɔlkt].

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 49966, this pair ranks #1,191,688 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Filet vs folgt

Shared letters: flt. Private to "Filet": ei. Private to "folgt": go.

"Filet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "folgt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Filet ← ffilet · fielt · filett · fillet · filte · fliet · iflet
  • folgt ← ffolgt · flogt · foglt · folggt · folgtt · follgt · foltg · oflgt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Filet" for "folgt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Filet" is a noun and "folgt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Filet" or "folgt" show up more?
"folgt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,077 in our German list, against #48,889 for "Filet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Filet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folgt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,191,688 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Filet" and "folgt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Filet vs fist". 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 #1,191,688 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