weiltevswelkeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: weilte is a verb, welke is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weilte” is a verb and “welke” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,422
“weilte” frequency rank
#47,128
“welke” frequency rank
76550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weilte welke
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs weilen Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk

Where the eye mixes weilte and welke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. weilte runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against welke's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
weilte
5 ch
welke

Look-alike desk: weilte vs welke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weilte is [ˈvaɪ̯ltə] while welke is [ˈvɛlkə]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weilte is recorded at frequency rank #29,422, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯ltə]. 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 76550, this pair ranks #281,279 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of weilte vs welke

Shared letters: elw. Private to "weilte": it. Private to "welke": k.

"weilte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weilte ← ewilte · weilet · weillte · weiltte · weitle · welite · wielte · wweilte
  • welke ← ewlke · wekle · welek · welkke · wellke · wleke · wwelke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "weilte" and "welke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weilte" is a verb and "welke" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "weilte" vs "welke" - which ranks higher?
"weilte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,422 in our German list, against #47,128 for "welke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "weilte" 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 #281,279 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weilte" and "welke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wehte vs welke". 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 #281,279 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