WettervswitteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Wetter is a noun, witte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wetter” is a noun and “witte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,496
“Wetter” frequency rank
#26,252
“witte” frequency rank
27748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wetter witte
Definition aktueller Zustand der Atmosphäre an einem bestimmten Ort und zu einer bestimmten Zeit Kenntnis haben, sich über etwas Wahres sicher sein; wissen

Where the eye mixes Wetter and witte

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

6 ch
Wetter
5 ch
witte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wetter is [ˈvɛtɐ] while witte is [ˈvɪtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wetter is recorded at frequency rank #1,496, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɛtɐ]. witte is at rank #26,252, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪtə].

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 27748, this pair ranks #1,796,532 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wetter vs witte

Shared letters: etw. Private to "Wetter": r. Private to "witte": i.

"Wetter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "witte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wetterewtter · weter · wetetr · wetterr · wettre · wteter · wwetter
  • witteiwtte · wite · witet · wtite · wwitte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wetter" and "witte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wetter" is a noun and "witte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wetter" or "witte"?
"Wetter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,496 in our German list, against #26,252 for "witte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Wetter" and "witte". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wetter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "witte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,796,532 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wetter" and "witte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs witte". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list