HöfevsholeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,734
“Höfe” frequency rank
#7,486
“hole” frequency rank
24220
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Höfe hole
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Hof 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs holen

Where the eye mixes Höfe and hole

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Höfe and hole follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Höfe
4 ch
hole

Why the eye confuses Höfe with hole

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Höfe is [ˈhøːfə] while hole is [ˈhoːlə]. 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 24220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Höfe is recorded at frequency rank #16,734, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhøːfə]. hole is at rank #7,486, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhoːlə].

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 24220, this pair ranks #1,850,733 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Höfe vs hole

Shared letters: eh. Private to "Höfe": fö. Private to "hole": lo.

"Höfe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hole ← hhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Höfe" for "hole" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Höfe" is a noun and "hole" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Höfe" vs "hole" - which ranks higher?
"hole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,486 in our German list, against #16,734 for "Höfe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Höfe" and "hole" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Höfe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,850,733 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Höfe" and "hole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haze vs Höfe". 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 #1,850,733 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