wählevsWohlTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,853
“wähle” frequency rank
#174
“Wohl” frequency rank
8027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wähle Wohl
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wählen Zustand des Gutgehens, körperlich und geistig, auch Gesundheit und Glück

Where the eye mixes wähle and Wohl

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wähle runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Wohl's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
wähle
4 ch
Wohl

Why the eye confuses wähle with Wohl

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wähle is [ˈvɛːlə] while Wohl is [voːl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wähle is recorded at frequency rank #7,853, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛːlə]. Wohl is at rank #174, tagged as anoun, pronounced [voːl].

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 8027, this pair ranks #1,985,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wähle vs Wohl

Shared letters: hlw. Private to "wähle": . Private to "Wohl": o.

"wähle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Wohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wohlowhl · whol · wohhl · wohll · wolh · wwohl

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wähle" for "Wohl" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wähle" is a verb and "Wohl" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wähle" or "Wohl"?
"Wohl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #174 in our German list, against #7,853 for "wähle". 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 "wähle" and "Wohl" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wähle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wohl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,985,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wähle" and "Wohl" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wähle vs waste". 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 #1,985,912 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