FischevsfrischesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Fische is a name, frisches is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Fische” is a name and “frisches” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,082
“Fische” frequency rank
#10,657
“frisches” frequency rank
15739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fische frisches
Definition ein Sternbild der Ekliptik Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs frisch

Where the eye mixes Fische and frisches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Fische runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against frisches's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Fische
8 ch
frisches

Visual trap between Fische and frisches

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Fische is [ˈfɪʃə] while frisches is [ˈfʁɪʃəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fische is recorded at frequency rank #5,082, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈfɪʃə]. frisches is at rank #10,657, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁɪʃəs].

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 15739, this pair ranks #1,941,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fische vs frisches

Shared letters: cefhis. Private to "Fische": -. Private to "frisches": r.

"Fische" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "frisches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fischeffische · ficshe · fiscche · fisceh · fischhe · fishce · fissche · fsiche
  • frischesffrisches · firsches · fricshes · friscches · friscehs · frischess · frischhes · frischse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Fische" and "frisches" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fische" is a name and "frisches" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Fische" vs "frisches" - which ranks higher?
"Fische" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,082 in our German list, against #10,657 for "frisches". 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 "Fische" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frisches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,941,517 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fische" and "frisches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frisches vs Fröschen". 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 #1,941,517 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