FohlenvsführenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#22,725
“Fohlen” frequency rank
#634
“führen” frequency rank
23359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Fohlen führen
Definition Jungtier eines Pferdes in eine Richtung geleiten, zum Beispiel, indem man nahe neben jemandem geht oder ihn sogar dabei berührt und ihm hilft einen Weg zu finden, den er sonst schwer hätte zu finden

Where the eye mixes Fohlen and führen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Fohlen
6 ch
führen

Why the eye confuses Fohlen with führen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Fohlen is [ˈfoːlən] while führen is [ˈfyːʁən]. 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 23359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Fohlen is recorded at frequency rank #22,725, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfoːlən]. führen is at rank #634, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfyːʁən].

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 23359, this pair ranks #1,862,311 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Fohlen vs führen

Shared letters: efhn. Private to "Fohlen": lo. Private to "führen": .

"Fohlen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "führen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fohlenffohlen · fholen · foheln · fohhlen · fohlenn · fohllen · fohlne · folhen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Fohlen" and "führen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Fohlen" is a noun and "führen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Fohlen" or "führen"?
"führen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #634 in our German list, against #22,725 for "Fohlen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Fohlen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "führen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,862,311 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Fohlen" and "führen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fohlen vs Föhn". 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 #1,862,311 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