wehtevsweiterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wehte is a verb, weiter is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#45,686
“wehte” frequency rank
#168
“weiter” frequency rank
45854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehte weiter
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs wehen zum bereits Vorhandenen noch dazukommend, hinzugefügt

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wehte and weiter apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
wehte
6 ch
weiter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehte is [ˈveːtə] while weiter is [ˈvaɪ̯tɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wehte is recorded at frequency rank #45,686, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈveːtə]. weiter is at rank #168, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯tɐ].

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 45854, this pair ranks #1,338,977 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wehte vs weiter

Shared letters: etw. Private to "wehte": h. Private to "weiter": ir.

"wehte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "weiter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehteewhte · wehet · wehhte · wehtte · wethe · whete · wwehte
  • weiterewiter · weietr · weiterr · weitre · weitter · wetier · wieter · wweiter

Frequency comparison

wehte#45,686
weiter#168

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wehte" and "weiter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wehte" is a verb and "weiter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wehte" or "weiter"?
"weiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #168 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.

Remembering wehte vs weiter

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “wehte”; for an adjective, it's “weiter”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wehte” 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