WillemvswillstTell them apart

Quick tell: Willem is a name, willst is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Willem” is a name and “willst” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,873
“Willem” frequency rank
#643
“willst” frequency rank
31516
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Willem willst
Definition männlicher Vorname 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wollen

Letter map: Willem vs willst

Shared letters muted; letters that set Willem and willst apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Willem
6 ch
willst

Part-of-speech tell for Willem / willst

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Willem is aname and willstaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Willem is recorded at frequency rank #30,873, classified as aname, pronounced […]. willst is at rank #643, tagged as averb, pronounced [vɪlst].

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 31516, this pair ranks #1,726,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Willem vs willst

Shared letters: ilw. Private to "Willem": em. Private to "willst": st.

"Willem" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "willst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Willemiwllem · wilelm · wilem · willemm · willme · wlilem · wwillem
  • willstiwllst · willsst · willstt · willts · wilslt · wilst · wlilst · wwillst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Willem" and "willst" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Willem" is a name and "willst" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Willem" or "willst" show up more?
"willst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #643 in our German list, against #30,873 for "Willem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Willem" and "willst".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Willem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "willst" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,726,519 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Willem" and "willst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Willem". 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 #1,726,519 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