we'revswerbeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: we're is a abbrev, werbe is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“we're” is an abbrev and “werbe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,728
“we're” frequency rank
#15,263
“werbe” frequency rank
51991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature we're werbe
Definition „we are:“ wir sind 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs werben

Letter map: we're vs werbe

Shared letters muted; letters that set we're and werbe apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
we're
5 ch
werbe

Part-of-speech tell for we're / werbe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: we're is anabbrev and werbeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

we're is recorded at frequency rank #36,728, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. werbe is at rank #15,263, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛʁbə].

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 51991, this pair ranks #1,114,114 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of we're vs werbe

Shared letters: erw. Private to "we're": -. Private to "werbe": b.

"we're" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "werbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • werbeewrbe · werbbe · wereb · werrbe · wrebe · wwerbe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "we're" for "werbe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "we're" is an abbrev and "werbe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "we're" or "werbe" show up more?
"werbe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,263 in our German list, against #36,728 for "we're". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "we're" and "werbe". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "we're" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "werbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,114,114 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "we're" and "werbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs we're". 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 #1,114,114 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