wirftvsWirteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,869
“wirft” frequency rank
#30,395
“Wirte” frequency rank
33264
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wirft Wirte
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs werfen Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Wirt

Where the eye mixes wirft and Wirte

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

5 ch
wirft
5 ch
Wirte

Why the eye confuses wirft with Wirte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wirft is [vɪʁft] while Wirte is [ˈvɪʁtə]. 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 33264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wirft is recorded at frequency rank #2,869, classified as averb, pronounced [vɪʁft]. Wirte is at rank #30,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪʁtə].

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 33264, this pair ranks #1,689,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wirft vs Wirte

Shared letters: irtw. Private to "wirft": f. Private to "Wirte": e.

"wirft" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Wirte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wirftiwrft · wifrt · wirfft · wirftt · wirrft · wirtf · wrift · wwirft
  • Wirteiwrte · wiret · wirrte · wirtte · witre · wwirte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wirft" and "Wirte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wirft" is a verb and "Wirte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wirft" or "Wirte" show up more?
"wirft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,869 in our German list, against #30,395 for "Wirte". 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 "wirft" and "Wirte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wirft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wirte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,689,757 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wirft" and "Wirte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs Wirte". 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 #1,689,757 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