führenvsFührerinWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#634
“führen” frequency rank
#46,666
“Führerin” frequency rank
47300
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature führen Führerin
Definition in eine Richtung geleiten, zum Beispiel, indem man nahe neben jemandem geht oder ihn sogar dabei berührt und ihm hilft einen Weg zu finden, den er sonst schwer hätte zu finden leitende Person in einer Organisation, Vereinigung oder Bewegung

Where the eye mixes führen and Führerin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. führen runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Führerin's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
führen
8 ch
Führerin

Why the eye confuses führen with Führerin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: führen is [ˈfyːʁən] while Führerin is [ˈfyːʁəʁɪn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47300, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

führen is recorded at frequency rank #634, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfyːʁən]. Führerin is at rank #46,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfyːʁəʁɪn].

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 47300, this pair ranks #1,289,202 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of führen vs Führerin

Shared letters: efhnrü. Private to "führen": -. Private to "Führerin": i.

"führen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Führerin" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "führen" and "Führerin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "führen" is a verb and "Führerin" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "führen" or "Führerin" show up more?
"führen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #634 in our German list, against #46,666 for "Führerin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "führen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Führerin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,289,202 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "führen" and "Führerin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Führerin vs Führern". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,289,202 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