WillenvswillsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#2,004
“Willen” frequency rank
#27,136
“wills” frequency rank
29140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Willen wills
Definition Wille 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs will

Letter map: Willen vs wills

Shared letters muted; letters that set Willen and wills apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Willen
5 ch
wills

Grammar separator: Willen vs wills

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Willen is anoun and willsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Willen is recorded at frequency rank #2,004, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪlən]. wills is at rank #27,136, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 29140, this pair ranks #1,772,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Willen vs wills

Shared letters: ilw. Private to "Willen": en. Private to "wills": s.

"Willen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Willeniwllen · wileln · wilen · willenn · willne · wlilen · wwillen
  • willsiwlls · willss · wils · wilsl · wlils · wwills

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Willen" and "wills" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Willen" is a noun and "wills" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Willen" or "wills" show up more?
"Willen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,004 in our German list, against #27,136 for "wills". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Willen" and "wills".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Willen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,772,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Willen" and "wills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs wills". 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 #1,772,268 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