warnenvsWärterTell them apart

Quick tell: warnen is a verb, Wärter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“warnen” is a verb and “Wärter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,129
“warnen” frequency rank
#33,922
“Wärter” frequency rank
40051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature warnen Wärter
Definition jemanden auf eine Gefahr aufmerksam machen Person, die etwas beaufsichtigt oder bewacht

Where the eye mixes warnen and Wärter

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

6 ch
warnen
6 ch
Wärter

Visual trap between warnen and Wärter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: warnen is [ˈvaʁnən] while Wärter is [ˈvɛʁtɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

warnen is recorded at frequency rank #6,129, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaʁnən]. Wärter is at rank #33,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɛʁtɐ].

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 40051, this pair ranks #1,519,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of warnen vs Wärter

Shared letters: erw. Private to "warnen": an. Private to "Wärter": .

"warnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Wärter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warnenawrnen · wanren · warnenn · warnne · warnnen · warrnen · wranen · wwarnen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "warnen" and "Wärter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "warnen" is a verb and "Wärter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "warnen" or "Wärter" show up more?
"warnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,129 in our German list, against #33,922 for "Wärter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "warnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wärter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,519,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "warnen" and "Wärter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wärter vs writer". 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 #1,519,415 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