Which to use
“Gefieder” is a noun and “gefielen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,200
- “Gefieder” frequency rank
- #39,956
- “gefielen” frequency rank
- 83156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Gefieder | gefielen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gesamtheit der Federn, welche die Haut eines Vogels bedecken | 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs gefallen |
Where the eye mixes Gefieder and gefielen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gefieder and gefielen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between Gefieder and gefielen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gefieder is [ɡəˈfiːdɐ] while gefielen is [ɡəˈfiːlən]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Gefieder is recorded at frequency rank #43,200, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈfiːdɐ]. gefielen is at rank #39,956, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈfiːlən].
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 83156, this pair ranks #144,689 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Gefieder vs gefielen
Shared letters: efgi. Private to "Gefieder": dr. Private to "gefielen": ln.
"Gefieder" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "gefielen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Gefieder" for "gefielen" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Gefieder" or "gefielen" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Gefieder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gefielen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,689 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Gefieder" and "gefielen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gefieder vs Gefilden". 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 #144,689 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.