WeinevsweiseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Weine is a noun, weise is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Weine” is a noun and “weise” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,898
“Weine” frequency rank
#740
“weise” frequency rank
6638
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weine weise
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Wein reich an Wissen und Lebenserfahrung

Where the eye mixes Weine and weise

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

5 ch
Weine
5 ch
weise

Why the eye confuses Weine with weise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Weine is [ˈvaɪ̯nə] while weise is [ˈvaɪ̯zə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “Weine” becomes s in “weise”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Weine is recorded at frequency rank #5,898, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯nə]. weise is at rank #740, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯zə].

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 6638, this pair ranks #1,990,960 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Weine vs weise

Shared letters: eiw. Private to "Weine": n. Private to "weise": s.

"Weine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "weise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weineewine · weien · wenie · wiene · wweine
  • weiseewise · weies · weisse · wesie · wweise

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Weine" for "weise" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Weine" is a noun and "weise" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Weine" or "weise"?
"weise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #740 in our German list, against #5,898 for "Weine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Weine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,990,960 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Weine" and "weise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weine 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 #1,990,960 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