wehrevsWerraWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,548
“wehre” frequency rank
#29,868
“Werra” frequency rank
65416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehre Werra
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wehren Fluss in Deutschland, neben der Fulda einer der beiden großen Quellflüsse der Weser

Where the eye mixes wehre and Werra

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

5 ch
wehre
5 ch
Werra

Why the eye confuses wehre with Werra

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehre is [ˈveːʁə] while Werra is [ˈvɛʁa]. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65416, 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]. Werra is at rank #29,868, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈvɛʁa].

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 65416, this pair ranks #607,679 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wehre vs Werra

Shared letters: erw. Private to "wehre": h. Private to "Werra": a.

"wehre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Werra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehreewhre · weher · wehhre · wehrre · werhe · wwehre
  • Werraewrra · wera · werar · wrera · wwerra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wehre" and "Werra" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wehre" is a verb and "Werra" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wehre" or "Werra" show up more?
"Werra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,868 in our German list, against #35,548 for "wehre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wehre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Werra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #607,679 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wehre" and "Werra" 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 #607,679 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