Deutsch homophones

wider/wieder

"wider" is a preposition; "wieder" is an adverb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #38 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "wider" arrives as a preposition, while "wieder" is an adverb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "wi" then splits - "wider" (5 letters) vs "wieder" (6).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across wider, wieder: deirw. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • wider

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCVC

    Inventory deirw · no private letters vs siblings

  • wieder

    6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVVCVC

    Inventory deirw · no private letters vs siblings

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "wider" when you mean: drückt einen Gegensatz aus
  • Write "wieder" when you mean: ein oder mehrere weitere Male

Known mistypes of these spellings

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

  • wideriwder · wdier · widerr · widre · wiedr · wwider
  • wiederiweder · weider · wideer · wiedder · wiederr · wiedre

Each spelling

wider

preposition · /ˈviːdɐ/ · #5,132 frequency

drückt einen Gegensatz aus

wieder

adverb · /ˈviːdɐ/ · #78 frequency

ein oder mehrere weitere Male

Nearby German homophone groups

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

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