fogvsfürWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fog is a noun, für is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fog” is a noun and “für” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,768
“fog” frequency rank
#24,219
“für” frequency rank
70987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fog für
Definition Brouillard, brume. Pour, à l’intention de.

Where the eye mixes fog and für

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. fog and für follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
fog
3 ch
für

Look-alike desk: fog vs für

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fog is \fɔɡ\ while für is \fyːɐ̯\. 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 preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fog is recorded at frequency rank #46,768, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔɡ\. für is at rank #24,219, tagged as aprep, pronounced \fyːɐ̯\.

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 70987, this pair ranks #49,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fog vs für

Shared letters: f. Private to "fog": go. Private to "für": rü.

"fog" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "für" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fog" for "für" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fog" is a noun and "für" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fog" vs "für" - which ranks higher?
"für" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,219 in our French list, against #46,768 for "fog". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "für" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fog" and "für" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fog". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list