Which to use
“formatieren” is a verb and “Formationen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,680
- “formatieren” frequency rank
- #20,922
- “Formationen” frequency rank
- 70602
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | formatieren | Formationen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Datenträger (Festplatte, USB-Stick, Flash-Speicher etc.) mit einem Dateisystem (NTFS, FAT) versehen. | Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Formation |
Where the eye mixes formatieren and Formationen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. formatieren and Formationen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: formatieren vs Formationen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: formatieren is [fɔʁmaˈtiːʁən] while Formationen is [fɔʁmaˈt͡si̯oːnən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
formatieren is recorded at frequency rank #49,680, classified as averb, pronounced [fɔʁmaˈtiːʁən]. Formationen is at rank #20,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fɔʁmaˈt͡si̯oːnən].
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 70602, this pair ranks #441,318 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of formatieren vs Formationen
Shared letters: aefimnort. Private to "formatieren": -. Private to "Formationen": -.
"formatieren" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCVC · "Formationen" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- formatieren ← fformatieren · fomratieren · foramtieren · formaiteren · formateiren · formatieern · formatierenn · formatierne
- Formationen ← fformationen · fomrationen · foramtionen · formaitonen · formatinoen · formatioenn · formationenn · formationne
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "formatieren" and "Formationen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "formatieren" or "Formationen"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "formatieren" and "Formationen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "formatieren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Formationen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #441,318 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "formatieren" and "Formationen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "formatieren vs Formatierung". 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 #441,318 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.