wehrtvswentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“wehrt” and “went” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,777
“wehrt” frequency rank
#48,632
“went” frequency rank
59409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehrt went
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wehren Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs go

Where the eye mixes wehrt and went

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

5 ch
wehrt
4 ch
went

Visual trap between wehrt and went

A purely visual mix-up. wehrt ([veːɐ̯t]) and went ([went]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wehrt is recorded at frequency rank #10,777, classified as averb, pronounced [veːɐ̯t]. went is at rank #48,632, tagged as averb, pronounced [went].

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 59409, this pair ranks #825,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wehrt vs went

Shared letters: etw. Private to "wehrt": hr. Private to "went": n.

"wehrt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "went" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehrtewhrt · wehhrt · wehrrt · wehrtt · wehtr · werht · whert · wwehrt
  • wentewnt · wennt · wentt · wetn · wnet · wwent

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wehrt" and "went" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([veːɐ̯t] versus [went]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "wehrt" vs "went" - which ranks higher?
"wehrt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,777 in our German list, against #48,632 for "went". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wehrt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "went" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #825,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wehrt" and "went" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wants 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 #825,589 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