warnenvswordenTell them apart

Quick tell: warnen is a verb, worden is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,129
“warnen” frequency rank
#285
“worden” frequency rank
6414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature warnen worden
Definition jemanden auf eine Gefahr aufmerksam machen Partizip Perfekt von werden als Hilfsverb. In diesem Fall steckt die Hauptaussage in dem Verb, das mit Hilfe von worden ins Perfekt gesetzt wurde, - anders als bei dem zweiten Partizip Perfekt zu werden: geworden.

Where the eye mixes warnen and worden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
warnen
6 ch
worden

Look-alike desk: warnen vs worden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: warnen is [ˈvaʁnən] while worden is [ˈvɔʁdən]. 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 unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6414, 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]. worden is at rank #285, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈvɔʁdən].

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 6414, this pair ranks #1,991,722 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of warnen vs worden

Shared letters: enrw. Private to "warnen": a. Private to "worden": do.

"warnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "worden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warnenawrnen · wanren · warnenn · warnne · warnnen · warrnen · wranen · wwarnen
  • wordenowrden · wodren · wordden · wordenn · wordne · woredn · worrden · wroden

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "warnen" and "worden" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "warnen" is a verb and "worden" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "warnen" or "worden"?
"worden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #285 in our German list, against #6,129 for "warnen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "warnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "worden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,991,722 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "warnen" and "worden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "warnen vs warnten". 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 #1,991,722 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