WeinevswelkeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,898
“Weine” frequency rank
#47,128
“welke” frequency rank
53026
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weine welke
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Wein Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk

Where the eye mixes Weine and welke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Weine (CVVCV) and welke (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Weine
5 ch
welke

Look-alike desk: Weine vs welke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Weine is [ˈvaɪ̯nə] while welke is [ˈvɛlkə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53026, 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]. 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 53026, this pair ranks #1,073,985 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Weine vs welke

Shared letters: ew. Private to "Weine": in. Private to "welke": kl.

"Weine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weine ← ewine · weien · wenie · wiene · wweine
  • welke ← ewlke · wekle · welek · welkke · wellke · wleke · wwelke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Weine" and "welke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Weine" is a noun and "welke" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Weine" vs "welke" - which ranks higher?
"Weine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,898 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.

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 "welke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,073,985 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Weine" 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 #1,073,985 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