währenvswaltenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“währen” and “walten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,465
“währen” frequency rank
#20,786
“walten” frequency rank
55251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature währen walten
Definition sich über eine Zeitspanne erstrecken eine bestimmende oder herrschende Funktion erfüllen

Where the eye mixes währen and walten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. währen and walten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
währen
6 ch
walten

Look-alike desk: währen vs walten

A purely visual mix-up. währen ([ˈvɛːʁən]) and walten ([ˈvaltn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55251, 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]. walten is at rank #20,786, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvaltn̩].

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 55251, this pair ranks #986,819 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of währen vs walten

Shared letters: enw. Private to "währen": hrä. Private to "walten": alt.

"währen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "walten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • walten ← awlten · waletn · wallten · waltenn · waltne · waltten · watlen · wlaten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "währen" for "walten" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvɛːʁən] versus [ˈvaltn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "währen" or "walten"?
"walten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,786 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "währen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "walten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #986,819 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "währen" and "walten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "währen vs Warzen". 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 #986,819 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