WahnvswährtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,521
“Wahn” frequency rank
#30,876
“währt” frequency rank
46397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wahn währt
Definition falsche Vorstellung 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs währen

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Wahn and währt apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
Wahn
5 ch
währt

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wahn is [vaːn] while währt is [vɛːɐ̯t]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wahn is recorded at frequency rank #15,521, classified as anoun, pronounced [vaːn]. währt is at rank #30,876, tagged as averb, pronounced [vɛːɐ̯t].

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 46397, this pair ranks #1,320,498 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wahn vs währt

Shared letters: hw. Private to "Wahn": an. Private to "währt": rtä.

"Wahn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "währt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wahnawhn · wahhn · wahnn · wanh · whan · wwahn

Frequency comparison

Wahn#15,521
währt#30,876

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wahn" and "währt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wahn" is a noun and "währt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wahn" or "währt"?
"Wahn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,521 in our German list, against #30,876 for "währt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Wahn vs währt

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Wahn”; for a verb, it's “währt”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Wahn” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list