FöhrvsfoyerConfusable pair

Quick tell: Föhr is a name, foyer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#45,948
“Föhr” frequency rank
#18,887
“foyer” frequency rank
64835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Föhr foyer
Definition eine nordfriesische Insel vor der Westküste Schleswig-Holsteins Flur, Eingangsbereich, Diele

Where the eye mixes Föhr and foyer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Föhr runs 4 letters (CVCC) against foyer's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Föhr
5 ch
foyer

Visual trap between Föhr and foyer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Föhr is [føːɐ̯] while foyer is [ˈfɔɪ.eɪ]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64835, 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]. foyer is at rank #18,887, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɔɪ.eɪ].

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 64835, this pair ranks #627,616 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Föhr vs foyer

Shared letters: fr. Private to "Föhr": hö. Private to "foyer": eoy.

"Föhr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "foyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foyer ← ffoyer · foeyr · foyerr · foyre · foyyer · fyoer · ofyer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Föhr" for "foyer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Föhr" is a name and "foyer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Föhr" or "foyer" show up more?
"foyer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,887 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Föhr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #627,616 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Föhr" and "foyer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fock vs Föhr". 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 #627,616 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