werbevswerdeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,263
“werbe” frequency rank
#232
“werde” frequency rank
15495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature werbe werde
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs werben 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs werden

Where the eye mixes werbe and werde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
werbe
5 ch
werde

Why the eye confuses werbe with werde

A purely visual mix-up. werbe ([ˈvɛʁbə]) and werde ([ˈveːɐ̯də]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - b in “werbe” becomes d in “werde”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

werbe is recorded at frequency rank #15,263, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɛʁbə]. werde is at rank #232, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈveːɐ̯də].

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 15495, this pair ranks #1,943,426 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of werbe vs werde

Shared letters: erw. Private to "werbe": b. Private to "werde": d.

"werbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "werde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • werbeewrbe · werbbe · wereb · werrbe · wrebe · wwerbe
  • werdeewrde · wedre · werdde · wered · werrde · wrede · wwerde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "werbe" and "werde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvɛʁbə] versus [ˈveːɐ̯də]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "werbe" vs "werde" - which ranks higher?
"werde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #232 in our German list, against #15,263 for "werbe". 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 "werbe" and "werde" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "werbe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "werde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,943,426 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "werbe" and "werde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "welke vs werbe". 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 #1,943,426 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