wantedvswarnteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,131
“wanted” frequency rank
#13,981
“warnte” frequency rank
41112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wanted warnte
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs want 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs warnen

Letter map: wanted vs warnte

Shared letters muted; letters that set wanted and warnte apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
wanted
6 ch
warnte

Spelling & dictionary notes on wanted vs warnte

wanted and warnte are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wanted is recorded at frequency rank #27,131, classified as averb, pronounced […]. warnte is at rank #13,981, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvaʁntə].

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 41112, this pair ranks #1,488,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wanted vs warnte

Shared letters: aentw. Private to "wanted": d. Private to "warnte": r.

"wanted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "warnte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wantedawnted · wanetd · wannted · wantedd · wantted · watned · wnated · wwanted
  • warnteawrnte · wanrte · warnet · warnnte · warntte · warrnte · wrante · wwarnte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wanted" for "warnte" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "wanted" or "warnte" show up more?
"warnte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,981 in our German list, against #27,131 for "wanted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "wanted" and "warnte". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wanted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "warnte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,488,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wanted" and "warnte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs wanted". 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 #1,488,991 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