PflegervspflügenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,985
“Pfleger” frequency rank
#48,382
“pflügen” frequency rank
61367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pfleger pflügen
Definition Person, die jemanden pflegt mit einem Pflug tätig sein

Where the eye mixes Pfleger and pflügen

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

7 ch
Pfleger
7 ch
pflügen

Look-alike desk: Pfleger vs pflügen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pfleger is [ˈp͡fleːɡɐ] while pflügen is [ˈp͡flyːɡn̩]. 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 61367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pfleger is recorded at frequency rank #12,985, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈp͡fleːɡɐ]. pflügen is at rank #48,382, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈp͡flyːɡn̩].

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 61367, this pair ranks #752,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pfleger vs pflügen

Shared letters: efglp. Private to "Pfleger": r. Private to "pflügen": nü.

"Pfleger" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCVC  ·  "pflügen" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pfleger ← fpleger · pfelger · pffleger · pfleegr · pflegerr · pflegger · pflegre · pflgeer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Pfleger" and "pflügen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pfleger" is a noun and "pflügen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Pfleger" or "pflügen" show up more?
"Pfleger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,985 in our German list, against #48,382 for "pflügen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pfleger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pflügen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #752,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pfleger" and "pflügen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pflegten vs pflügen". 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 #752,519 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