WaldevsWelpeTell them apart

Quick tell: Walde is a name, Welpe is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Walde” is a name and “Welpe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,990
“Walde” frequency rank
#32,362
“Welpe” frequency rank
57352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Walde Welpe
Definition deutschsprachiger Familienname, Nachname junger Fuchs, Wolf oder Hund

Where the eye mixes Walde and Welpe

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

5 ch
Walde
5 ch
Welpe

Look-alike desk: Walde vs Welpe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Walde is [ˈvaldə] while Welpe is [ˈvɛlpə]. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Walde is recorded at frequency rank #24,990, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈvaldə]. Welpe is at rank #32,362, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɛlpə].

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 57352, this pair ranks #904,631 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Walde vs Welpe

Shared letters: elw. Private to "Walde": ad. Private to "Welpe": p.

"Walde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Welpe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Walde ← awlde · wadle · waldde · waled · wallde · wlade · wwalde
  • Welpe ← ewlpe · welep · wellpe · welppe · weple · wlepe · wwelpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Walde" and "Welpe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Walde" is a name and "Welpe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Walde" or "Welpe"?
"Walde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,990 in our German list, against #32,362 for "Welpe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Walde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Welpe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #904,631 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Walde" and "Welpe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "welke vs Welpe". 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 #904,631 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