wannvswantsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wann is a adverb, wants is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wann” is an adverb and “wants” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#592
“wann” frequency rank
#49,376
“wants” frequency rank
49968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wann wants
Definition zu welchem Zeitpunkt 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs want

Letter map: wann vs wants

Shared letters muted; letters that set wann and wants apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. wann runs 4 letters (CVCC) against wants's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
wann
5 ch
wants

Role in the sentence - wann and wants

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wann is anadverb and wantsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wann is recorded at frequency rank #592, classified as anadv, pronounced [van]. wants is at rank #49,376, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 49968, this pair ranks #1,191,604 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wann vs wants

Shared letters: anw. Private to "wann": -. Private to "wants": st.

"wann" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wants" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wann ← awnn · wan · wnan · wwann
  • wants ← awnts · wannts · wanst · wantss · wantts · watns · wnats · wwants

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wann" and "wants" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wann" is an adverb and "wants" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wann" vs "wants" - which ranks higher?
"wann" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #592 in our German list, against #49,376 for "wants". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "wann" vs "wants" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wann" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,191,604 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wann" and "wants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs wants". 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 #1,191,604 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