Deutsch homophones

vage/Waage/wage

"vage" is an adjective; "Waage" is a noun - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "vage" arrives as an adjective, while "Waage" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "vage" is 4 letters, "Waage" is 5; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "vage" is 4 letters, "wage" is 4; only the sound ties them.
  • Shared stem "wa" then splits - "Waage" (5 letters) vs "wage" (4).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across vage, Waage, wage: aeg. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • vage

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV

    Inventory aegv · private v

  • Waage

    5 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCV

    Inventory aegw · private w

  • wage

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV

    Inventory aegw · private w

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "vage" when you mean: schwer erkennbar oder vorstellbar, ungewiss
  • Write "Waage" when you mean: Messgerät zur Bestimmung des Gewichtes
  • Write "wage" when you mean: 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wagen

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • vageavge · vaeg · vagge · vgae · vvage
  • Waageawage · waaeg · waagge · wagae · wwaage
  • wageawge · waeg · wagge · wgae · wwage

Each spelling

vage

adjective · /ˈvaːɡə/ · #13,720 frequency

schwer erkennbar oder vorstellbar, ungewiss

Waage

noun · /ˈvaːɡə/ · #10,969 frequency

Messgerät zur Bestimmung des Gewichtes

wage

verb · /ˈvaːɡə/ · #11,358 frequency

1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wagen

Nearby German homophone groups

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list