Which to use
“waschen” is a verb and “welchen” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,844
- “waschen” frequency rank
- #1,277
- “welchen” frequency rank
- 6121
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | waschen | welchen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mit Wasser oder einer anderen Flüssigkeit reinigen | Akkusativ Singular des Pronomens welcher |
Where the eye mixes waschen and welchen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. waschen and welchen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between waschen and welchen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: waschen is [ˈvaʃn̩] while welchen is [ˈvɛlçn̩]. 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 6121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
waschen is recorded at frequency rank #4,844, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaʃn̩]. welchen is at rank #1,277, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈvɛlçn̩].
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 6121, this pair ranks #1,992,653 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of waschen vs welchen
Shared letters: cehnw. Private to "waschen": as. Private to "welchen": l.
"waschen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "welchen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "waschen" for "welchen" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "waschen" or "welchen" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "waschen" and "welchen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "waschen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "welchen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,992,653 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "waschen" and "welchen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wäldchen vs waschen". 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 #1,992,653 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.