führstvsFürstWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,048
“führst” frequency rank
#5,834
“Fürst” frequency rank
37882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature führst Fürst
Definition 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs führen hoher Adliger im Rang zwischen Graf und Herzog

Where the eye mixes führst and Fürst

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. führst runs 6 letters (CVCCCC) against Fürst's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
führst
5 ch
Fürst

Look-alike desk: führst vs Fürst

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: führst is [fyːɐ̯st] while Fürst is [fʏʁst]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

führst is recorded at frequency rank #32,048, classified as averb, pronounced [fyːɐ̯st]. Fürst is at rank #5,834, tagged as anoun, pronounced [fʏʁst].

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 37882, this pair ranks #1,578,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of führst vs Fürst

Shared letters: frstü. Private to "führst": h. Private to "Fürst": -.

"führst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC  ·  "Fürst" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "führst" for "Fürst" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "führst" is a verb and "Fürst" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "führst" or "Fürst" show up more?
"Fürst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,834 in our German list, against #32,048 for "führst". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "führst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Fürst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,578,603 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "führst" and "Fürst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fehlst vs führst". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,578,603 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