Which to use
“Heften” is a noun and “heftig” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,112
- “Heften” frequency rank
- #3,660
- “heftig” frequency rank
- 33772
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Heften | heftig |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dativ Plural des Substantivs Heft | mit großer Intensität; sehr stark |
Where the eye mixes Heften and heftig
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Heften and heftig follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Heften vs heftig
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Heften is [ˈhɛftn̩] while heftig is [ˈhɛftɪç]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Heften is recorded at frequency rank #30,112, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɛftn̩]. heftig is at rank #3,660, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɛftɪç].
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 33772, this pair ranks #1,678,454 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Heften vs heftig
Shared letters: efht. Private to "Heften": n. Private to "heftig": gi.
"Heften" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "heftig" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Heften" for "heftig" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Heften" or "heftig" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Heften" and "heftig" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Heften" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heftig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,678,454 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Heften" and "heftig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Häuten vs Heften". 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 #1,678,454 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.