frühevsFugeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,707
“frühe” frequency rank
#30,065
“Fuge” frequency rank
35772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frühe Fuge
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs früh trennende, längliche, unter Umständen auch aufgefüllte Lücke, Spalt zwischen zwei Teilen, zum Beispiel Backsteinen oder Kacheln

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set frühe and Fuge apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
frühe
4 ch
Fuge

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frühe is [ˈfʁyːə] while Fuge is [ˈfuːɡə]. 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 35772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frühe is recorded at frequency rank #5,707, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfʁyːə]. Fuge is at rank #30,065, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfuːɡə].

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 35772, this pair ranks #1,631,908 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of frühe vs Fuge

Shared letters: ef. Private to "frühe": hrü. Private to "Fuge": gu.

"frühe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Fuge" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Fugeffuge · fgue · fueg · fugge · ufge

Frequency comparison

frühe#5,707
Fuge#30,065

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "frühe" and "Fuge" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frühe" is an adjective and "Fuge" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "frühe" or "Fuge"?
"frühe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,707 in our German list, against #30,065 for "Fuge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering frühe vs Fuge

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “frühe”; for a noun, it's “Fuge”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “frühe” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list