wehrevsWeileWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,548
“wehre” frequency rank
#3,093
“Weile” frequency rank
38641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehre Weile
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wehren unbestimmte, kürzere Zeitdauer

Where the eye mixes wehre and Weile

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

5 ch
wehre
5 ch
Weile

Look-alike desk: wehre vs Weile

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehre is [ˈveːʁə] while Weile is [ˈvaɪ̯lə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wehre is recorded at frequency rank #35,548, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈveːʁə]. Weile is at rank #3,093, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯lə].

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 38641, this pair ranks #1,558,544 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wehre vs Weile

Shared letters: ew. Private to "wehre": hr. Private to "Weile": il.

"wehre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Weile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehreewhre · weher · wehhre · wehrre · werhe · wwehre
  • Weileewile · weiel · weille · welie · wiele · wweile

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wehre" and "Weile" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wehre" is a verb and "Weile" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wehre" or "Weile"?
"Weile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,093 in our German list, against #35,548 for "wehre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wehre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Weile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,558,544 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wehre" and "Weile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wehre vs welke". 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 #1,558,544 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