gefehltvsGefühlsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#7,180
“gefehlt” frequency rank
#43,203
“Gefühls” frequency rank
50383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gefehlt Gefühls
Definition Partizip Perfekt des Verbs fehlen Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Gefühl

Where the eye mixes gefehlt and Gefühls

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gefehlt and Gefühls follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
gefehlt
7 ch
Gefühls

Why the eye confuses gefehlt with Gefühls

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gefehlt is [ɡəˈfeːlt] while Gefühls is [ɡəˈfyːls]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gefehlt is recorded at frequency rank #7,180, classified as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈfeːlt]. Gefühls is at rank #43,203, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfyːls].

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 50383, this pair ranks #1,175,712 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gefehlt vs Gefühls

Shared letters: efghl. Private to "gefehlt": t. Private to "Gefühls": .

"gefehlt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "Gefühls" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gefehltegfehlt · geefhlt · gefehhlt · gefehllt · gefehltt · gefehtl · gefelht · geffehlt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gefehlt" and "Gefühls" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gefehlt" is a verb and "Gefühls" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gefehlt" or "Gefühls"?
"gefehlt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,180 in our German list, against #43,203 for "Gefühls". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gefehlt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gefühls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,175,712 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gefehlt" and "Gefühls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefühls vs gekühlt". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,175,712 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