welchvswhichWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“welch” and “which” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,845
“welch” frequency rank
#12,204
“which” frequency rank
17049
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature welch which
Definition mit unmittelbar folgendem Adjektiv: Wort zur besonderen Hervorhebung einer Eigenschaft welche?

Letter map: welch vs which

Shared letters muted; letters that set welch and which apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. welch (CVCCC) and which (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
welch
5 ch
which

Corpus notes: welch and which

welch and which are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17049, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

welch is recorded at frequency rank #4,845, classified as apron, pronounced [vɛlç]. which is at rank #12,204, tagged as apron, pronounced […].

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 17049, this pair ranks #1,930,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of welch vs which

Shared letters: chw. Private to "welch": el. Private to "which": i.

"welch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "which" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • welch ← ewlch · weclh · welcch · welchh · welhc · wellch · wlech · wwelch
  • which ← hwich · whcih · whhich · whicch · whichh · whihc · wihch · wwhich

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "welch" for "which" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "welch" or "which" show up more?
"welch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,845 in our German list, against #12,204 for "which". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "welch" and "which".

  • Full dictionary entry for "welch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "which" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,930,789 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "welch" and "which" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs which". 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 #1,930,789 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