Which to use
“Willi” is a name and “wills” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,611
- “Willi” frequency rank
- #27,136
- “wills” frequency rank
- 33747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Willi | wills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | männlicher Vorname | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs will |
Letter map: Willi vs wills
Shared letters muted; letters that set Willi and wills apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - Willi and wills
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Willi is aname and willsaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “Willi” becomes s in “wills”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Willi is recorded at frequency rank #6,611, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈvɪli]. 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 33747, this pair ranks #1,678,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Willi vs wills
Shared letters: ilw. Private to "Willi": -. Private to "wills": s.
"Willi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "wills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Willi" for "wills" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Willi" or "wills" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Willi" and "wills".
- Full dictionary entry for "Willi" 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 #1,678,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Willi" 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 #1,678,952 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.