warenvswartWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#115
“waren” frequency rank
#8,970
“wart” frequency rank
9085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature waren wart
Definition 1. Person Plural Präteritum Indikativ Aktiv des Verbs sein 2. Person Plural Präteritum Indikativ des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes waren and wart

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
waren
4 ch
wart

Visual trap between waren and wart

A purely visual mix-up. waren ([ˈvaːʁən]) and wart ([vaːɐ̯t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

waren is recorded at frequency rank #115, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaːʁən]. wart is at rank #8,970, tagged as averb, pronounced [vaːɐ̯t].

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 9085, this pair ranks #1,981,526 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of waren vs wart

Shared letters: arw. Private to "waren": en. Private to "wart": t.

"waren" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "wart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warenawren · waern · warenn · wraen · wwaren
  • wartawrt · warrt · wartt · watr · wrat · wwart

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "waren" for "wart" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvaːʁən] versus [vaːɐ̯t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "waren" or "wart"?
"waren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #115 in our German list, against #8,970 for "wart". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "waren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wart" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,981,526 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "waren" and "wart" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wart 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 #1,981,526 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