wegenvsWiegeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wegen is a preposition, Wiege is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wegen” is a preposition and “Wiege” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#202
“wegen” frequency rank
#14,209
“Wiege” frequency rank
14411
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wegen Wiege
Definition auf Grund, verursacht durch, auf Veranlassung von, mit Rücksicht auf entweder mit zwei abgerundeten Kufen beziehungsweise Schaukelbrettern versehenes beziehungsweise in ein spezielles Gestell eingehängtes oder frei von der Decke hängendes kastenförmiges Bettchen für Säuglinge, mithilfe dessen der Säugling (in Längs- oder Querrichtung) gewiegt beziehungsweise geschaukelt werden kann

Where the eye mixes wegen and Wiege

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
wegen
5 ch
Wiege

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wegen is [ˈveːɡn̩] while Wiege is [ˈviːɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14411, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wegen is recorded at frequency rank #202, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈveːɡn̩]. Wiege is at rank #14,209, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈviːɡə].

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 14411, this pair ranks #1,951,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wegen vs Wiege

Shared letters: egw. Private to "wegen": n. Private to "Wiege": i.

"wegen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Wiege" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wegenewgen · weegn · wegenn · weggen · wegne · wgeen · wwegen
  • Wiegeiwege · wieeg · wiegge · wigee · wwiege

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wegen" and "Wiege" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wegen" is a preposition and "Wiege" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wegen" or "Wiege"?
"wegen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #202 in our German list, against #14,209 for "Wiege". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list