Which to use
“wählen” and “währen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #984
- “wählen” frequency rank
- #34,465
- “währen” frequency rank
- 35449
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wählen | währen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sich für eine von mehreren Möglichkeiten entscheiden | sich über eine Zeitspanne erstrecken |
Where the eye mixes wählen and währen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. wählen and währen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: wählen vs währen
A purely visual mix-up. wählen ([ˈvɛːlən]) and währen ([ˈvɛːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - l in “wählen” becomes r in “währen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wählen is recorded at frequency rank #984, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛːlən]. währen is at rank #34,465, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛːʁən].
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 35449, this pair ranks #1,639,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wählen vs währen
Shared letters: ehnwä. Private to "wählen": l. Private to "währen": r.
"wählen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "währen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wählen" for "währen" ever safe?
Frequency check: "wählen" vs "währen" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "wählen" and "währen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wählen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "währen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,639,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wählen" and "währen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "währen vs Warzen". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #1,639,726 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.