wemvswetWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wem is a pronoun, wet is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wem” is a pronoun and “wet” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,002
“wem” frequency rank
#32,867
“wet” frequency rank
34869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wem wet
Definition Dativ von wer nass

Where the eye mixes wem and wet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
wem
3 ch
wet

Look-alike desk: wem vs wet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wem is [veːm] while wet is [wɛt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “wem” becomes t in “wet”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wem is recorded at frequency rank #2,002, classified as apron, pronounced [veːm]. wet is at rank #32,867, tagged as anadj, pronounced [wɛt].

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 34869, this pair ranks #1,653,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wem vs wet

Shared letters: ew. Private to "wem": m. Private to "wet": t.

"wem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wet" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wem" for "wet" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wem" is a pronoun and "wet" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wem" or "wet"?
"wem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,002 in our German list, against #32,867 for "wet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "wem" and "wet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,653,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wem" and "wet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs wet". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,653,440 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