fellow vs follow, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,579
“fellow” frequency rank: #31,355
“follow” frequency rank: 67934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fellow	follow
Definition	Tipo, hombre o muchacho.	Seguir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fellow and follow apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

fellow

6 ch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fellow is /ˈfɛl.əʊ/ while follow is /ˈfɒl.əʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “fellow” becomes o in “follow”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fellow is recorded at frequency rank #36,579, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛl.əʊ/. follow is at rank #31,355, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɒl.əʊ/.

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 67934, this pair ranks #35,813 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fellow vs follow

Shared letters: flow. Private to "fellow": e. Private to "follow": -.

"fellow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "follow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

fellow ← efllow · felloww · fellwo · felolw · felow · ffellow · flelow
follow ← ffollow · flolow · followw · follwo · fololw · folow · ofllow

Frequency comparison

fellow#36,579

follow#31,355

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fellow" and "follow" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fellow" is a noun and "follow" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fellow" or "follow"?

"follow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,355 in our Spanish list, against #36,579 for "fellow". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fellow vs follow

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fellow”; for a verb, it's “follow”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fellow” entry
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