für
[fyːɐ̯]
The verdict
“für” is in the everyday core of German, ranked #16 in German word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #16
- frequency rank, German
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - etwas oder jemand ist an etwas jemanden gerichtet, bestimmt, zugeordnet
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | für |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | [fyːɐ̯] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “für” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for für is 3 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [fyːɐ̯]. Corpus data places it at rank #16 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for für in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "FW", "FV", "fürs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is für, spelled F-Ü-R.
Definition
- 1etwas oder jemand ist an etwas jemanden gerichtet, bestimmt, zugeordnet
- 2bestimmt oder gibt einen Zweck, einen Nutzen, eine Absicht, ein Ziel an; bestimmt einen Vorteil oder Nachteil, einen Zuschlag, eine Bestimmung jemandes oder etwas
- 3gegen, ein Mittel gegen
- 4wegen, bestimmt oder gibt einen Grund, eine Ursache an
- 5bestimmt oder gibt eine Wertung, Auffassung, Meinung wieder
- 6bestimmt oder gibt eine Leistung, einen Wert, einen Preis an
- 7anstelle, vertretend, vergleichend
- 8bestimmt oder gibt einen Zeitraum oder Zeitpunkt an
- 9bestimmt oder gibt eine Folge an
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “für”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is F-Ü-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [fyːɐ̯] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “FW” - see the side-by-side comparison. für vs FW
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.