weilvsweitWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: weil is a conjunction, weit is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weil” is a conjunction and “weit” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#112
“weil” frequency rank
#355
“weit” frequency rank
467
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weil weit
Definition Subjunktion, die einen kausalen Nebensatz einleitet, auf dem besonderer Nachdruck liegt; im Hauptsatz stehen oft Wörter wie darum, deshalb oder deswegen, die auf den Nebensatz hinweisen sollen, weil kann dann nicht durch da ersetzt werden (flächenhaft) ausgedehnt

Where the eye mixes weil and weit

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

4 ch
weil
4 ch
weit

Visual trap between weil and weit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weil is [vaɪ̯l] while weit is [vaɪ̯t]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “weil” becomes t in “weit”, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weil is recorded at frequency rank #112, classified as aconj, pronounced [vaɪ̯l]. weit is at rank #355, tagged as anadj, pronounced [vaɪ̯t].

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 467, this pair ranks #2,005,813 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weil vs weit

Shared letters: eiw. Private to "weil": l. Private to "weit": t.

"weil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "weit" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weilewil · weill · weli · wiel · wweil
  • weitewit · weitt · weti · wiet · wweit

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "weil" and "weit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weil" is a conjunction and "weit" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "weil" vs "weit" - which ranks higher?
"weil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #112 in our German list, against #355 for "weit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "weil" and "weit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,813 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weil" and "weit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weit 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 #2,005,813 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