FurchtvsfürchteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,055
“Furcht” frequency rank
#6,660
“fürchte” frequency rank
14715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Furcht fürchte
Definition Emotion angesichts drohender Gefahr 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs fürchten

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Furcht and fürchte apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
Furcht
7 ch
fürchte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Furcht is [fʊʁçt] while fürchte is [ˈfʏʁçtə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Furcht is recorded at frequency rank #8,055, classified as anoun, pronounced [fʊʁçt]. fürchte is at rank #6,660, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʏʁçtə].

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 14715, this pair ranks #1,949,254 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Furcht vs fürchte

Shared letters: cfhrt. Private to "Furcht": u. Private to "fürchte": .

"Furcht" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC  ·  "fürchte" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Furchtffurcht · fucrht · furccht · furchht · furchtt · furcth · furhct · furrcht

Frequency comparison

Furcht#8,055
fürchte#6,660

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Furcht" and "fürchte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Furcht" is a noun and "fürchte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Furcht" or "fürchte"?
"fürchte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,660 in our German list, against #8,055 for "Furcht". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Furcht vs fürchte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Furcht”; for a verb, it's “fürchte”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Furcht” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list