WagenvswehenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Wagen is a noun, wehen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,248
“Wagen” frequency rank
#13,067
“wehen” frequency rank
14315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wagen wehen
Definition einachsiges oder mehrachsiges Fahrzeug zum Transport beliebiger Dinge, mit Muskelkraft bewegt eine Luftströmung verursachen

Where the eye mixes Wagen and wehen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Wagen
5 ch
wehen

Visual trap between Wagen and wehen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wagen is [ˈvaːɡn̩] while wehen is [ˈveːən]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wagen is recorded at frequency rank #1,248, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvaːɡn̩]. wehen is at rank #13,067, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈveːən].

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 14315, this pair ranks #1,952,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wagen vs wehen

Shared letters: enw. Private to "Wagen": ag. Private to "wehen": h.

"Wagen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "wehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wagenawgen · waegn · wagenn · waggen · wagne · wgaen · wwagen
  • wehenewhen · weehn · wehenn · wehhen · wehne · wheen · wwehen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wagen" and "wehen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wagen" is a noun and "wehen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wagen" or "wehen"?
"Wagen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,248 in our German list, against #13,067 for "wehen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Wagen" and "wehen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wagen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,952,055 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wagen" and "wehen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wehen vs weilen". 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 #1,952,055 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list