Which to use
“welke” is an adjective and “winke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,128
- “welke” frequency rank
- #32,873
- “winke” frequency rank
- 80001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | welke | winke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs winken |
Where the eye mixes welke and winke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. welke and winke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: welke vs winke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: welke is [ˈvɛlkə] while winke is [ˈvɪŋkə]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
welke is recorded at frequency rank #47,128, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɛlkə]. winke is at rank #32,873, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪŋkə].
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 80001, this pair ranks #204,598 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of welke vs winke
Shared letters: ekw. Private to "welke": l. Private to "winke": in.
"welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "winke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "welke" and "winke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "welke" or "winke" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "welke" and "winke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "welke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "winke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #204,598 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "welke" and "winke" 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 #204,598 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.