FrüchtevsfürchteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,169
“Früchte” frequency rank
#6,660
“fürchte” frequency rank
11829
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Früchte fürchte
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Frucht 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fürchten

Where the eye mixes Früchte and fürchte

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

7 ch
Früchte
7 ch
fürchte

Look-alike desk: Früchte vs fürchte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Früchte is [ˈfʁʏçtə] while fürchte is [ˈfʏʁçtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (rü ↔ ür) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Früchte is recorded at frequency rank #5,169, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʁʏçtə]. fürchte is at rank #6,660, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʏʁçtə].

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 11829, this pair ranks #1,967,666 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Früchte vs fürchte

Shared letters: cefhrtü. Private to "Früchte": -. Private to "fürchte": -.

"Früchte" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "fürchte" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Früchte" and "fürchte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Früchte" is a noun and "fürchte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Früchte" vs "fürchte" - which ranks higher?
"Früchte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,169 in our German list, against #6,660 for "fürchte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Früchte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fürchte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,967,666 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Früchte" and "fürchte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forschte vs fürchte". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,967,666 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