WehvswehteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,474
“Weh” frequency rank
#45,686
“wehte” frequency rank
48160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weh wehte
Definition seelischer Schmerz 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs wehen

Where the eye mixes Weh and wehte

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

3 ch
Weh
5 ch
wehte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Weh is [veː] while wehte is [ˈveːtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Weh” sits inside “wehte”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Weh is recorded at frequency rank #2,474, classified as anoun, pronounced [veː]. wehte is at rank #45,686, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈveːtə].

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 48160, this pair ranks #1,258,659 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Weh vs wehte

Shared letters: ehw. Private to "Weh": -. Private to "wehte": t.

"Weh" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wehte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehteewhte · wehet · wehhte · wehtte · wethe · whete · wwehte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Weh" and "wehte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Weh" is a noun and "wehte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Weh" or "wehte"?
"Weh" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,474 in our German list, against #45,686 for "wehte". 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