fitvsfürConfusable pair

Quick tell: fit is a adjective, für is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fit” is an adjective and “für” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,655
“fit” frequency rank
#16
“für” frequency rank
3671
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fit für
Definition in guter gesundheitlicher, sportlicher, physischer, psychischer Verfassung; gut vorbereitet etwas oder jemand ist an etwas jemanden gerichtet, bestimmt, zugeordnet

Where the eye mixes fit and für

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
fit
3 ch
für

Why the eye confuses fit with für

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fit is [fɪt] while für is [fyːɐ̯]. 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 preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fit is recorded at frequency rank #3,655, classified as anadj, pronounced [fɪt]. für is at rank #16, tagged as aprep, pronounced [fyːɐ̯].

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 3671, this pair ranks #1,999,661 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fit vs für

Shared letters: f. Private to "fit": it. Private to "für": .

"fit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "für" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fit" and "für" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fit" is an adjective and "für" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "fit" or "für" show up more?
"für" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16 in our German list, against #3,655 for "fit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "für" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,661 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fit" and "für" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fist vs fit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,999,661 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