FöhrvsFonWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Föhr is a name, Fon is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Föhr” is a name and “Fon” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,948
“Föhr” frequency rank
#43,878
“Fon” frequency rank
89826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Föhr Fon
Definition eine nordfriesische Insel vor der Westküste Schleswig-Holsteins Telefon

Where the eye mixes Föhr and Fon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. Föhr runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Fon's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Föhr
3 ch
Fon

Visual trap between Föhr and Fon

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Föhr is [føːɐ̯] while Fon is [foːn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs abbrev), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Föhr is recorded at frequency rank #45,948, classified as aname, pronounced [føːɐ̯]. Fon is at rank #43,878, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [foːn].

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 89826, this pair ranks #53,249 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Föhr vs Fon

Shared letters: f. Private to "Föhr": hrö. Private to "Fon": no.

"Föhr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Fon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Föhr" for "Fon" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Föhr" is a name and "Fon" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Föhr" or "Fon"?
"Fon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,878 in our German list, against #45,948 for "Föhr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Föhr" and "Fon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Föhr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,249 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Föhr" and "Fon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fock vs Föhr". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,249 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