wartenvswartestWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#848
“warten” frequency rank
#21,843
“wartest” frequency rank
22691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature warten wartest
Definition Zeit verstreichen lassen beziehungsweise untätig sein, bis ein bestimmter Zustand eintrifft 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs warten

Where the eye mixes warten and wartest

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
warten
7 ch
wartest

Look-alike desk: warten vs wartest

A purely visual mix-up. warten ([ˈvaʁtn̩]) and wartest ([ˈvaʁtəst]) 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 22691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

warten is recorded at frequency rank #848, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaʁtn̩]. wartest is at rank #21,843, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvaʁtəst].

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 22691, this pair ranks #1,870,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of warten vs wartest

Shared letters: aertw. Private to "warten": n. Private to "wartest": s.

"warten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wartest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wartenawrten · waretn · warrten · wartenn · wartne · wartten · watren · wraten
  • wartestawrtest · waretst · warrtest · wartesst · wartestt · wartets · wartset · warttest

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "warten" and "wartest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvaʁtn̩] versus [ˈvaʁtəst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "warten" or "wartest"?
"warten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #848 in our German list, against #21,843 for "wartest". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "warten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wartest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,870,971 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "warten" and "wartest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wärest vs wartest". 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 #1,870,971 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