wehenvswelchenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wehen is a verb, welchen is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wehen” is a verb and “welchen” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,067
“wehen” frequency rank
#1,277
“welchen” frequency rank
14344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehen welchen
Definition eine Luftströmung verursachen Akkusativ Singular des Pronomens welcher

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wehen and welchen apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
wehen
7 ch
welchen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehen is [ˈveːən] while welchen is [ˈvɛlçn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wehen is recorded at frequency rank #13,067, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈveːən]. welchen is at rank #1,277, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈvɛlçn̩].

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 14344, this pair ranks #1,951,847 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wehen vs welchen

Shared letters: ehnw. Private to "wehen": -. Private to "welchen": cl.

"wehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "welchen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehenewhen · weehn · wehenn · wehhen · wehne · wheen · wwehen
  • welchenewlchen · weclhen · welcchen · welcehn · welchenn · welchhen · welchne · welhcen

Frequency comparison

wehen#13,067
welchen#1,277

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wehen" and "welchen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wehen" is a verb and "welchen" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wehen" or "welchen"?
"welchen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,277 in our German list, against #13,067 for "wehen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering wehen vs welchen

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “wehen”; for an unknown, it's “welchen”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wehen” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list