führendvsführendesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,975
“führend” frequency rank
#47,412
“führendes” frequency rank
69387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature führend führendes
Definition das Geschehen bestimmend Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs führend

Where the eye mixes führend and führendes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. führend runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against führendes's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
führend
9 ch
führendes

Look-alike desk: führend vs führendes

A purely visual mix-up. führend ([ˈfyːʁənt]) and führendes ([ˈfyːʁəndəs]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “führend” sits inside “führendes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69387, 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]. führendes is at rank #47,412, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈfyːʁəndəs].

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 69387, this pair ranks #478,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of führend vs führendes

Shared letters: defhnrü. Private to "führend": -. Private to "führendes": s.

"führend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "führendes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "führend" for "führendes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfyːʁənt] versus [ˈfyːʁəndəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "führend" or "führendes" show up more?
"führend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,975 in our German list, against #47,412 for "führendes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "führend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "führendes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #478,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "führend" and "führendes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fehlendes vs führendes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #478,197 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