weichemvswelchenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: weichem is a adjective, welchen is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weichem” is an adjective and “welchen” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,573
“weichem” frequency rank
#1,277
“welchen” frequency rank
42850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weichem welchen
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs weich Akkusativ Singular des Pronomens welcher

Where the eye mixes weichem and welchen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. weichem (CVVCCVC) and welchen (CVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
weichem
7 ch
welchen

Visual trap between weichem and welchen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weichem is [ˈvaɪ̯çm̩] while welchen is [ˈvɛlçn̩]. 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 (adjective vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weichem is recorded at frequency rank #41,573, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯çm̩]. welchen is at rank #1,277, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈvɛlçn̩].

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 42850, this pair ranks #1,436,524 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of weichem vs welchen

Shared letters: cehw. Private to "weichem": im. Private to "welchen": ln.

"weichem" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "welchen" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weichem ← ewichem · wecihem · weicchem · weicehm · weichemm · weichhem · weichme · weihcem
  • welchen ← ewlchen · weclhen · welcchen · welcehn · welchenn · welchhen · welchne · welhcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "weichem" and "welchen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weichem" is an adjective and "welchen" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "weichem" or "welchen"?
"welchen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,277 in our German list, against #41,573 for "weichem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "weichem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "welchen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,436,524 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weichem" and "welchen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weichei vs weichem". 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 #1,436,524 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