haarigvshäufigWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,951
“haarig” frequency rank
#813
“häufig” frequency rank
49764
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature haarig häufig
Definition (dichtes) Haar habend vielfach vorkommend, viele Male, immer wieder auftretend

Where the eye mixes haarig and häufig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. haarig and häufig follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
haarig
6 ch
häufig

Why the eye confuses haarig with häufig

A purely visual mix-up. haarig ([ˈhaːʁɪç]) and häufig ([ˈhɔɪ̯fɪç]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

haarig is recorded at frequency rank #48,951, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaːʁɪç]. häufig is at rank #813, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔɪ̯fɪç].

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 49764, this pair ranks #1,199,271 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of haarig vs häufig

Shared letters: ghi. Private to "haarig": ar. Private to "häufig": fuä.

"haarig" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "häufig" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haarig ← aharig · haairg · haargi · haarigg · haarrig · haraig · harig · hhaarig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "haarig" for "häufig" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhaːʁɪç] versus [ˈhɔɪ̯fɪç]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "haarig" vs "häufig" - which ranks higher?
"häufig" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #813 in our German list, against #48,951 for "haarig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "haarig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "häufig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,199,271 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "haarig" and "häufig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haarig vs hastig". 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 #1,199,271 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