Which to use
“welke” is an adjective and “wirke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,128
- “welke” frequency rank
- #19,774
- “wirke” frequency rank
- 66902
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | welke | wirke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wirken |
Where the eye mixes welke and wirke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. welke and wirke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between welke and wirke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: welke is [ˈvɛlkə] while wirke is [ˈvɪʁkə]. 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 66902, 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]. wirke is at rank #19,774, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪʁkə].
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 66902, this pair ranks #557,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of welke vs wirke
Shared letters: ekw. Private to "welke": l. Private to "wirke": ir.
"welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "wirke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "welke" and "wirke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "welke" or "wirke" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "welke" and "wirke" 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 "wirke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #557,775 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "welke" and "wirke" 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 #557,775 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.