wähltevswaleWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,490
“wählte” frequency rank
#23,369
“wale” frequency rank
31859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wählte wale
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs wählen Rippe, Salleiste, feste Webkante

Letter map: wählte vs wale

Shared letters muted; letters that set wählte and wale apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. wählte runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against wale's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
wählte
4 ch
wale

Part-of-speech tell for wählte / wale

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wählte is averb and waleanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wählte is recorded at frequency rank #8,490, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛːltə]. wale is at rank #23,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 31859, this pair ranks #1,719,584 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wählte vs wale

Shared letters: elw. Private to "wählte": htä. Private to "wale": a.

"wählte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "wale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wale ← awle · wael · walle · wlae · wwale

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wählte" and "wale" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wählte" is a verb and "wale" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wählte" vs "wale" - which ranks higher?
"wählte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,490 in our German list, against #23,369 for "wale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "wählte" and "wale".

  • Full dictionary entry for "wählte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,719,584 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wählte" and "wale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs wale". 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 #1,719,584 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