weichvswelchWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: weich is a adjective, welch is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weich” is an adjective and “welch” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,487
“weich” frequency rank
#4,845
“welch” frequency rank
11332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weich welch
Definition ohne großen Kraftaufwand plastisch verformbar mit unmittelbar folgendem Adjektiv: Wort zur besonderen Hervorhebung einer Eigenschaft

Where the eye mixes weich and welch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
weich
5 ch
welch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weich is [vaɪ̯ç] while welch is [vɛlç]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “weich” becomes l in “welch”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weich is recorded at frequency rank #6,487, classified as anadj, pronounced [vaɪ̯ç]. welch is at rank #4,845, tagged as apron, pronounced [vɛlç].

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 11332, this pair ranks #1,970,444 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weich vs welch

Shared letters: cehw. Private to "weich": i. Private to "welch": l.

"weich" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "welch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weichewich · wecih · weicch · weichh · weihc · wiech · wweich
  • welchewlch · weclh · welcch · welchh · welhc · wellch · wlech · wwelch

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "weich" and "welch" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weich" is an adjective and "welch" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "weich" or "welch"?
"welch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,845 in our German list, against #6,487 for "weich". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "weich" and "welch". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "welch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,970,444 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weich" and "welch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weich vs Weins". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list