foodvsspielsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,045
“food” frequency rank
#5,427
“spiels” frequency rank
12472
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature food spiels
Definition jede Substanz die von Menschen, Pflanzen oder Tieren aufgenommen wird, um das Überleben und das Wachstum zu ermöglichen, Nahrung 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spiel

Letter map: food vs spiels

Shared letters muted; letters that set food and spiels apart highlighted. No shared letter run. food runs 4 letters (CVVC) against spiels's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
food
6 ch
spiels

Grammar separator: food vs spiels

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: food is anoun and spielsaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12472, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

food is recorded at frequency rank #7,045, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. spiels is at rank #5,427, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 12472, this pair ranks #1,963,992 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of food vs spiels

Shared letters: none. Private to "food": dfo. Private to "spiels": eilps.

"food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "spiels" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • food ← ffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod
  • spiels ← psiels · sipels · speils · spiells · spielss · spiesl · spiles · sppiels

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "food" and "spiels" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "food" is a noun and "spiels" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "food" or "spiels"?
"spiels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,427 in our German list, against #7,045 for "food". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "food" and "spiels".

  • Full dictionary entry for "food" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spiels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,963,992 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "food" and "spiels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "food vs puzzles". 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 #1,963,992 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