Which to use
“wehte” is a verb and “welke” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,686
- “wehte” frequency rank
- #47,128
- “welke” frequency rank
- 92814
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wehte | welke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs wehen | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk |
Where the eye mixes wehte and welke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wehte and welke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between wehte and welke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehte is [ˈveːtə] while welke is [ˈvɛlkə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92814, 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]. welke is at rank #47,128, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɛlkə].
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 92814, this pair ranks #27,122 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wehte vs welke
Shared letters: ew. Private to "wehte": ht. Private to "welke": kl.
"wehte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wehte" and "welke" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "wehte" or "welke" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "wehte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "welke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,122 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wehte" and "welke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs wehte". 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 #27,122 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.