fraglichvsfreilichWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fraglich is a adjective, freilich is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fraglich” is an adjective and “freilich” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,763
“fraglich” frequency rank
#5,480
“freilich” frequency rank
13243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fraglich freilich
Definition in Frage stehend, zu bezweifeln indessen, jedoch

Where the eye mixes fraglich and freilich

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fraglich (CCVCCVCC) and freilich (CCVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
fraglich
8 ch
freilich

Look-alike desk: fraglich vs freilich

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fraglich is [ˈfʁaːklɪç] while freilich is [ˈfʁaɪ̯lɪç]. 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 (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fraglich is recorded at frequency rank #7,763, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁaːklɪç]. freilich is at rank #5,480, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪ̯lɪç].

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 13243, this pair ranks #1,959,191 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fraglich vs freilich

Shared letters: cfhilr. Private to "fraglich": ag. Private to "freilich": e.

"fraglich" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "freilich" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fraglich ← farglich · ffraglich · fragglich · fragilch · fraglcih · fraglicch · fraglichh · fraglihc
  • freilich ← ferilich · ffreilich · freiilch · freilcih · freilicch · freilichh · freilihc · freillich

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fraglich" for "freilich" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fraglich" is an adjective and "freilich" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fraglich" vs "freilich" - which ranks higher?
"freilich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,480 in our German list, against #7,763 for "fraglich". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fraglich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "freilich" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,191 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fraglich" and "freilich" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fraglich vs fragliche". 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 #1,959,191 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