wahrstenvswährteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,322
“wahrsten” frequency rank
#39,738
“währte” frequency rank
56060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wahrsten währte
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Superlativs des Adjektivs wahr 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs währen

Where the eye mixes wahrsten and währte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. wahrsten runs 8 letters (CVCCCCVC) against währte's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
wahrsten
6 ch
währte

Look-alike desk: wahrsten vs währte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wahrsten is [ˈvaːɐ̯stn̩] while währte is [ˈvɛːɐ̯tə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 56060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wahrsten is recorded at frequency rank #16,322, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaːɐ̯stn̩]. währte is at rank #39,738, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛːɐ̯tə].

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 56060, this pair ranks #955,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wahrsten vs währte

Shared letters: ehrtw. Private to "wahrsten": ans. Private to "währte": ä.

"wahrsten" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCCVC  ·  "währte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wahrsten ← awhrsten · wahhrsten · wahrrsten · wahrsetn · wahrssten · wahrstenn · wahrstne · wahrstten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wahrsten" for "währte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wahrsten" is an adjective and "währte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wahrsten" vs "währte" - which ranks higher?
"wahrsten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,322 in our German list, against #39,738 for "währte". 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 "wahrsten" and "währte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wahrsten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "währte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #955,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wahrsten" and "währte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "währte vs waste". 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 #955,134 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