WeckvsWehWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,420
“Weck” frequency rank
#2,474
“Weh” frequency rank
31894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weck Weh
Definition längliches Brötchen seelischer Schmerz

Where the eye mixes Weck and Weh

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Weck
3 ch
Weh

Look-alike desk: Weck vs Weh

A purely visual mix-up. Weck ([vɛk]) and Weh ([veː]) 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 31894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Weck is recorded at frequency rank #29,420, classified as anoun, pronounced [vɛk]. Weh is at rank #2,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced [veː].

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 31894, this pair ranks #1,718,878 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Weck vs Weh

Shared letters: ew. Private to "Weck": ck. Private to "Weh": h.

"Weck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Weh" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weckewck · wcek · wecck · weckk · wekc · wweck

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Weck" for "Weh" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([vɛk] versus [veː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Weck" or "Weh"?
"Weh" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,474 in our German list, against #29,420 for "Weck". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Weck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Weh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,718,878 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Weck" and "Weh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weck vs went". 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 #1,718,878 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