wichvswineConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#19,451
“wich” frequency rank
#25,401
“wine” frequency rank
44852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wich wine
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs weichen Wein

Where the eye mixes wich and wine

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

4 ch
wich
4 ch
wine

Look-alike desk: wich vs wine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wich is [vɪç] while wine is [waɪn]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wich is recorded at frequency rank #19,451, classified as averb, pronounced [vɪç]. wine is at rank #25,401, tagged as anoun, pronounced [waɪn].

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 44852, this pair ranks #1,372,614 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wich vs wine

Shared letters: iw. Private to "wich": ch. Private to "wine": en.

"wich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wichiwch · wcih · wicch · wichh · wihc · wwich
  • wineiwne · winne · wnie · wwine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wich" and "wine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wich" is a verb and "wine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wich" vs "wine" - which ranks higher?
"wich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,451 in our German list, against #25,401 for "wine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,372,614 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wich" and "wine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs wine". 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 #1,372,614 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