wennvswohnTell them apart

Quick tell: wenn is a conjunction, wohn is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wenn” is a conjunction and “wohn” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41
“wenn” frequency rank
#7,257
“wohn” frequency rank
7298
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wenn wohn
Definition sobald 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wohnen

Where the eye mixes wenn and wohn

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

4 ch
wenn
4 ch
wohn

Visual trap between wenn and wohn

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wenn is [vɛn] while wohn is [voːn]. 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 (conjunction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wenn is recorded at frequency rank #41, classified as aconj, pronounced [vɛn]. wohn is at rank #7,257, tagged as averb, pronounced [voːn].

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 7298, this pair ranks #1,988,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wenn vs wohn

Shared letters: nw. Private to "wenn": e. Private to "wohn": ho.

"wenn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wohn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wennewnn · wnen · wwenn
  • wohnowhn · whon · wohhn · wohnn · wonh · wwohn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wenn" for "wohn" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wenn" is a conjunction and "wohn" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wenn" or "wohn"?
"wenn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41 in our German list, against #7,257 for "wohn". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wenn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wohn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,669 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wenn" and "wohn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wohn vs Wotan". 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 #1,988,669 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