währenvswahrerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: währen is a verb, wahrer is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#34,465
“währen” frequency rank
#8,654
“wahrer” frequency rank
43119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature währen wahrer
Definition sich über eine Zeitspanne erstrecken Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs wahr

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set währen and wahrer apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
währen
6 ch
wahrer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: währen is [ˈvɛːʁən] while wahrer is [ˈvaːʁɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

währen is recorded at frequency rank #34,465, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛːʁən]. wahrer is at rank #8,654, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaːʁɐ].

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 43119, this pair ranks #1,428,057 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of währen vs wahrer

Shared letters: ehrw. Private to "währen": . Private to "wahrer": a.

"währen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wahrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wahrerawhrer · waherr · wahhrer · wahrerr · wahrrer · warher · wharer · wwahrer

Frequency comparison

währen#34,465
wahrer#8,654

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "währen" and "wahrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "währen" is a verb and "wahrer" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "währen" or "wahrer"?
"wahrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,654 in our German list, against #34,465 for "währen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering währen vs wahrer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “währen”; for an adjective, it's “wahrer”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “währen” 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