WeilchenvswelchemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Weilchen is a noun, welchem is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Weilchen” is a noun and “welchem” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,392
“Weilchen” frequency rank
#1,795
“welchem” frequency rank
35187
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weilchen welchem
Definition unbestimmte, meist kurze Zeitspanne Dativ Singular des Pronomens welcher

Where the eye mixes Weilchen and welchem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Weilchen runs 8 letters (CVVCCCVC) against welchem's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
Weilchen
7 ch
welchem

Visual trap between Weilchen and welchem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Weilchen is [ˈvaɪ̯lçən] while welchem is [ˈvɛlçəm]. 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 (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35187, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Weilchen is recorded at frequency rank #33,392, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯lçən]. welchem is at rank #1,795, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈvɛlçəm].

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 35187, this pair ranks #1,645,949 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Weilchen vs welchem

Shared letters: cehlw. Private to "Weilchen": in. Private to "welchem": m.

"Weilchen" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCCVC  ·  "welchem" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weilchen ← ewilchen · weiclhen · weilcchen · weilcehn · weilchenn · weilchhen · weilchne · weilhcen
  • welchem ← ewlchem · weclhem · welcchem · welcehm · welchemm · welchhem · welchme · welhcem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Weilchen" for "welchem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Weilchen" is a noun and "welchem" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Weilchen" vs "welchem" - which ranks higher?
"welchem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,795 in our German list, against #33,392 for "Weilchen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Weilchen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "welchem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,645,949 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Weilchen" and "welchem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weilchen vs weilen". 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 #1,645,949 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