WegfallvswegfallenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Wegfall is a noun, wegfallen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wegfall” is a noun and “wegfallen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,993
“Wegfall” frequency rank
#20,788
“wegfallen” frequency rank
35781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wegfall wegfallen
Definition etwas, was mal existiert hat (beispielsweise ein Gesetz, ein Zuschuss, eine Stelle), ist nicht mehr gegeben/weggefallen wirklich nicht mehr dasein/existieren oder auch: ausfallen, zeitweise nicht zur Verfügung stehen

Where the eye mixes Wegfall and wegfallen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Wegfall
9 ch
wegfallen

Why the eye confuses Wegfall with wegfallen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wegfall is [ˈvɛkˌfal] while wegfallen is [ˈvɛkˌfalən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Wegfall” sits inside “wegfallen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wegfall is recorded at frequency rank #14,993, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɛkˌfal]. wegfallen is at rank #20,788, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛkˌfalən].

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 35781, this pair ranks #1,631,698 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wegfall vs wegfallen

Shared letters: aefglw. Private to "Wegfall": -. Private to "wegfallen": n.

"Wegfall" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "wegfallen" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wegfallewgfall · wefgall · wegafll · wegfal · wegffall · wegflal · weggfall · wgefall
  • wegfallenewgfallen · wefgallen · wegafllen · wegfaleln · wegfalen · wegfallenn · wegfallne · wegffallen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wegfall" and "wegfallen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wegfall" is a noun and "wegfallen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wegfall" or "wegfallen" show up more?
"Wegfall" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,993 in our German list, against #20,788 for "wegfallen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Wegfall" and "wegfallen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wegfall" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wegfallen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,631,698 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wegfall" and "wegfallen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wegfallen vs wegfällt". 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 #1,631,698 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