Which to use
“wasch” is a verb and “welch” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,959
- “wasch” frequency rank
- #4,845
- “welch” frequency rank
- 27804
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wasch | welch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs waschen | mit unmittelbar folgendem Adjektiv: Wort zur besonderen Hervorhebung einer Eigenschaft |
Where the eye mixes wasch and welch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wasch and welch follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between wasch and welch
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wasch is [vaʃ] while welch is [vɛlç]. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wasch is recorded at frequency rank #22,959, classified as averb, pronounced [vaʃ]. welch is at rank #4,845, tagged as apron, pronounced [vɛlç].
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 27804, this pair ranks #1,795,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wasch vs welch
Shared letters: chw. Private to "wasch": as. Private to "welch": el.
"wasch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "welch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wasch" and "welch" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "wasch" or "welch" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wasch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "welch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,795,585 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wasch" and "welch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wasch 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 #1,795,585 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.