flehenvsflötenTell them apart

Which to use

“flehen” and “flöten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,536
“flehen” frequency rank
#21,253
“flöten” frequency rank
61789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flehen flöten
Definition emotional, stark untersetzt, bei jemandem um etwas bitten flötenähnliche Töne hervorbringen

Where the eye mixes flehen and flöten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. flehen and flöten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
flehen
6 ch
flöten

Look-alike desk: flehen vs flöten

A purely visual mix-up. flehen ([ˈfleːən]) and flöten ([ˈfløːtn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flehen is recorded at frequency rank #40,536, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfleːən]. flöten is at rank #21,253, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfløːtn̩].

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 61789, this pair ranks #736,648 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of flehen vs flöten

Shared letters: efln. Private to "flehen": h. Private to "flöten": tö.

"flehen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "flöten" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flehen ← fflehen · fleehn · flehenn · flehhen · flehne · flheen · fllehen · lfehen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flehen" and "flöten" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfleːən] versus [ˈfløːtn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "flehen" vs "flöten" - which ranks higher?
"flöten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,253 in our German list, against #40,536 for "flehen". 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 "flehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flöten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #736,648 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flehen" and "flöten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flehen vs fleht". 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 #736,648 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