FirstvsfürsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: First is a noun, fürs is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“First” is a noun and “fürs” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,197
“First” frequency rank
#1,292
“fürs” frequency rank
5489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature First fürs
Definition höchste Kante an einem geneigten Dach für das

Where the eye mixes First and fürs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
First
4 ch
fürs

Look-alike desk: First vs fürs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: First is [fɪʁst] while fürs is [fyːɐ̯s]. 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 abbrev), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

First is recorded at frequency rank #4,197, classified as anoun, pronounced [fɪʁst]. fürs is at rank #1,292, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [fyːɐ̯s].

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 5489, this pair ranks #1,994,590 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of First vs fürs

Shared letters: frs. Private to "First": it. Private to "fürs": ü.

"First" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "fürs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Firstffirst · firrst · firsst · firstt · firts · fisrt · ifrst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "First" and "fürs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "First" is a noun and "fürs" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "First" or "fürs" show up more?
"fürs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,292 in our German list, against #4,197 for "First". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "First" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fürs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,994,590 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "First" and "fürs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "First 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 #1,994,590 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