freievsFriedeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: freie is a adjective, Friede is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“freie” is an adjective and “Friede” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,257
“freie” frequency rank
#13,142
“Friede” frequency rank
14399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature freie Friede
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs frei Frieden

Where the eye mixes freie and Friede

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
freie
6 ch
Friede

Look-alike desk: freie vs Friede

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: freie is [ˈfʁaɪ̯ə] while Friede is [ˈfʁiːdə]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

freie is recorded at frequency rank #1,257, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪ̯ə]. Friede is at rank #13,142, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʁiːdə].

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 14399, this pair ranks #1,951,469 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of freie vs Friede

Shared letters: efir. Private to "freie": -. Private to "Friede": d.

"freie" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "Friede" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • freieferie · ffreie · freei · friee · frreie · rfeie
  • Friedeffriede · firede · freide · fridee · friedde · frieed · frriede · rfiede

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "freie" and "Friede" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "freie" is an adjective and "Friede" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "freie" or "Friede" show up more?
"freie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,257 in our German list, against #13,142 for "Friede". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "freie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Friede" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,951,469 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "freie" and "Friede" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Friede vs friere". 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 #1,951,469 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