WegsvsweisTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,904
“Wegs” frequency rank
#7,848
“weis” frequency rank
41752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wegs weis
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Weg 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs weisen

Where the eye mixes Wegs and weis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Wegs
4 ch
weis

Look-alike desk: Wegs vs weis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wegs is [veːks] while weis is [vaɪ̯s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “Wegs” becomes i in “weis”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wegs is recorded at frequency rank #33,904, classified as anoun, pronounced [veːks]. weis is at rank #7,848, tagged as averb, pronounced [vaɪ̯s].

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 41752, this pair ranks #1,470,162 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wegs vs weis

Shared letters: esw. Private to "Wegs": g. Private to "weis": i.

"Wegs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "weis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wegsewgs · weggs · wegss · wesg · wges · wwegs
  • weisewis · weiss · wesi · wies · wweis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wegs" and "weis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wegs" is a noun and "weis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wegs" or "weis" show up more?
"weis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,848 in our German list, against #33,904 for "Wegs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wegs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,470,162 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wegs" and "weis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wegs 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 #1,470,162 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