FöhnvsfootTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,595
“Föhn” frequency rank
#34,657
“foot” frequency rank
68252
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Föhn foot
Definition an steileren Gebirgshängen absteigende, trockene und klare Luftmassen mit relativ hoher Temperatur unterste Teil des Beines; Fuß

Where the eye mixes Föhn and foot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. Föhn (CVCC) and foot (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Föhn
4 ch
foot

Visual trap between Föhn and foot

A purely visual mix-up. Föhn ([føːn]) and foot ([fʊt]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68252, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Föhn is recorded at frequency rank #33,595, classified as anoun, pronounced [føːn]. foot is at rank #34,657, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fʊt].

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 68252, this pair ranks #513,801 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Föhn vs foot

Shared letters: f. Private to "Föhn": hnö. Private to "foot": ot.

"Föhn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "foot" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foot ← ffoot · foott · fot · ofot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Föhn" for "foot" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([føːn] versus [fʊt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Föhn" vs "foot" - which ranks higher?
"Föhn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,595 in our German list, against #34,657 for "foot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Föhn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #513,801 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Föhn" and "foot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fist vs foot". 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 #513,801 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