führendvsführendeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“führend” and “führende” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,975
“führend” frequency rank
#6,796
“führende” frequency rank
28771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature führend führende
Definition das Geschehen bestimmend Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs führend

Where the eye mixes führend and führende

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. führend runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against führende's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
führend
8 ch
führende

Look-alike desk: führend vs führende

A purely visual mix-up. führend ([ˈfyːʁənt]) and führende ([ˈfyːʁəndə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “führend” sits inside “führende”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

führend is recorded at frequency rank #21,975, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfyːʁənt]. führende is at rank #6,796, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfyːʁəndə].

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 28771, this pair ranks #1,778,918 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of führend vs führende

Shared letters: defhnrü. Private to "führend": -. Private to "führende": -.

"führend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "führende" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "führend" for "führende" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfyːʁənt] versus [ˈfyːʁəndə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "führend" or "führende" show up more?
"führende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,796 in our German list, against #21,975 for "führend". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "führend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "führende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,778,918 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "führend" and "führende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "führend vs führendes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,778,918 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