willigvswillstConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#25,843
“willig” frequency rank
#643
“willst” frequency rank
26486
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature willig willst
Definition Erwartungen, Anforderungen von anderen gerne erfüllend 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wollen

Where the eye mixes willig and willst

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

6 ch
willig
6 ch
willst

Visual trap between willig and willst

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: willig is [ˈvɪlɪç] while willst is [vɪlst]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

willig is recorded at frequency rank #25,843, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɪlɪç]. 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 26486, this pair ranks #1,817,291 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of willig vs willst

Shared letters: ilw. Private to "willig": g. Private to "willst": st.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • willigiwllig · wilig · wililg · willgi · willigg · wlilig · wwillig
  • willstiwllst · willsst · willstt · willts · wilslt · wilst · wlilst · wwillst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "willig" and "willst" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "willig" is an adjective and "willst" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "willig" or "willst"?
"willst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #643 in our German list, against #25,843 for "willig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "willig" and "willst" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "willig" 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 #1,817,291 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "willig" and "willst" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Willich vs willig". 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 #1,817,291 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