fühltenvsFürstenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#12,711
“fühlten” frequency rank
#7,320
“Fürsten” frequency rank
20031
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fühlten Fürsten
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs fühlen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Fürst

Where the eye mixes fühlten and Fürsten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fühlten and Fürsten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
fühlten
7 ch
Fürsten

Visual trap between fühlten and Fürsten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fühlten is [ˈfyːltn̩] while Fürsten is [ˈfʏʁstn̩]. 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 20031, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fühlten is recorded at frequency rank #12,711, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfyːltn̩]. Fürsten is at rank #7,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfʏʁstn̩].

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 20031, this pair ranks #1,902,039 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fühlten vs Fürsten

Shared letters: efntü. Private to "fühlten": hl. Private to "Fürsten": rs.

"fühlten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "Fürsten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fühlten" for "Fürsten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fühlten" is a verb and "Fürsten" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fühlten" vs "Fürsten" - which ranks higher?
"Fürsten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,320 in our German list, against #12,711 for "fühlten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "fühlten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fürsten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,902,039 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fühlten" and "Fürsten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fügten vs fühlten". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,902,039 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