wahrvswehrtConfusable pair

Quick tell: wahr is a adjective, wehrt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wahr” is an adjective and “wehrt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,376
“wahr” frequency rank
#10,777
“wehrt” frequency rank
12153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wahr wehrt
Definition der Wahrheit, Wirklichkeit, den Tatsachen entsprechend; wirklich geschehen, nicht ausgedacht oder erfunden 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wehren

Where the eye mixes wahr and wehrt

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

4 ch
wahr
5 ch
wehrt

Visual trap between wahr and wehrt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wahr is [vaːɐ̯] while wehrt is [veːɐ̯t]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wahr is recorded at frequency rank #1,376, classified as anadj, pronounced [vaːɐ̯]. wehrt is at rank #10,777, tagged as averb, pronounced [veːɐ̯t].

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 12153, this pair ranks #1,965,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wahr vs wehrt

Shared letters: hrw. Private to "wahr": a. Private to "wehrt": et.

"wahr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wehrt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wahr ← awhr · wahhr · wahrr · warh · whar · wwahr
  • wehrt ← ewhrt · wehhrt · wehrrt · wehrtt · wehtr · werht · whert · wwehrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wahr" for "wehrt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wahr" is an adjective and "wehrt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wahr" vs "wehrt" - which ranks higher?
"wahr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,376 in our German list, against #10,777 for "wehrt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wahr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wehrt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,965,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wahr" and "wehrt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wehrt vs went". 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 #1,965,873 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