Which to use
“irgendwer” is a pronoun and “irgendwoher” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,072
- “irgendwer” frequency rank
- #32,609
- “irgendwoher” frequency rank
- 39681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | irgendwer | irgendwoher |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine oder mehrere unbestimmte Person(en) | von einem nicht näher beschriebenen Ort |
Where the eye mixes irgendwer and irgendwoher
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. irgendwer runs 9 letters (VCCVCCCVC) against irgendwoher's 11 (VCCVCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: irgendwer vs irgendwoher
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: irgendwer is [ˈɪʁɡn̩tˈveːɐ̯] while irgendwoher is [ɪʁɡn̩tvoˈheːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
irgendwer is recorded at frequency rank #7,072, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈɪʁɡn̩tˈveːɐ̯]. irgendwoher is at rank #32,609, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ɪʁɡn̩tvoˈheːɐ̯].
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 39681, this pair ranks #1,529,924 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of irgendwer vs irgendwoher
Shared letters: deginrw. Private to "irgendwer": -. Private to "irgendwoher": ho.
"irgendwer" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVC · "irgendwoher" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- irgendwer ← igrendwer · iregndwer · irgednwer · irgenddwer · irgendewr · irgendwerr · irgendwre · irgendwwer
- irgendwoher ← igrendwoher · iregndwoher · irgednwoher · irgenddwoher · irgendowher · irgendwhoer · irgendwoehr · irgendwoherr
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "irgendwer" and "irgendwoher" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "irgendwer" or "irgendwoher"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "irgendwer" and "irgendwoher" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "irgendwer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irgendwoher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,529,924 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "irgendwer" and "irgendwoher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "irgendwoher vs irgendwohin". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #1,529,924 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.