formavsfriendsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#42,495
“forma” frequency rank
#11,235
“friends” frequency rank
53730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forma friends
Definition Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs formar (unabhängig von Person und Numerus) Plural des Substantivs friend

Letter map: forma vs friends

Shared letters muted; letters that set forma and friends apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. forma runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against friends's 7 (CCVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
forma
7 ch
friends

Role in the sentence - forma and friends

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: forma is averb and friendsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forma is recorded at frequency rank #42,495, classified as averb, pronounced […]. friends is at rank #11,235, tagged as anoun, 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 53730, this pair ranks #1,046,569 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of forma vs friends

Shared letters: fr. Private to "forma": amo. Private to "friends": deins.

"forma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "friends" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • formafforma · fomra · foram · formma · forrma · froma · ofrma
  • friendsffriends · firends · freinds · friedns · friendds · friendss · friennds · friensd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "forma" for "friends" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "forma" is a verb and "friends" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "forma" vs "friends" - which ranks higher?
"friends" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,235 in our German list, against #42,495 for "forma". 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 "forma" and "friends".

  • Full dictionary entry for "forma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "friends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,046,569 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forma" and "friends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forma 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 #1,046,569 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