wandertvswundereWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#13,272
“wandert” frequency rank
#22,973
“wundere” frequency rank
36245
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wandert wundere
Definition 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wandern Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Komparativs des Adjektivs wund

Where the eye mixes wandert and wundere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. wandert (CVCCVCC) and wundere (CVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
wandert
7 ch
wundere

Look-alike desk: wandert vs wundere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wandert is [ˈvandɐt] while wundere is [ˈvʊndəʁə]. 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 36245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wandert is recorded at frequency rank #13,272, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvandɐt]. wundere is at rank #22,973, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvʊndəʁə].

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 36245, this pair ranks #1,620,423 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wandert vs wundere

Shared letters: denrw. Private to "wandert": at. Private to "wundere": u.

"wandert" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "wundere" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wandert ← awndert · wadnert · wanddert · wanderrt · wandertt · wandetr · wandret · wanedrt
  • wundere ← uwndere · wnudere · wudnere · wunddere · wundeer · wunderre · wundree · wunedre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wandert" for "wundere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wandert" is a verb and "wundere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wandert" or "wundere" show up more?
"wandert" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,272 in our German list, against #22,973 for "wundere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wandert" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wundere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,620,423 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wandert" and "wundere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wandert vs windet". 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 #1,620,423 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