within vs wohin, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“within” is a preposition and “wohin” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,872
“within” frequency rank: #2,630
“wohin” frequency rank: 32502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	within	wohin
Definition	innerhalb, in	zu welchem Ziel, in welche Richtung

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set within and wohin apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

within

5 ch

wohin

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: within is apreposition and wohinanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

within is recorded at frequency rank #29,872, classified as aprep, pronounced […]. wohin is at rank #2,630, tagged as anadv, pronounced [voˈhɪn].

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 32502, this pair ranks #1,706,226 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of within vs wohin

Shared letters: hinw. Private to "within": t. Private to "wohin": o.

"within" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "wohin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

within ← iwthin · wihtin · withhin · withinn · withni · witihn · witthin · wtihin
wohin ← owhin · whoin · wohhin · wohinn · wohni · woihn · wwohin

Frequency comparison

within#29,872

wohin#2,630

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "within" and "wohin" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "within" is a preposition and "wohin" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "within" or "wohin"?

"wohin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,630 in our German list, against #29,872 for "within". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering within vs wohin

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a preposition, it's “within”; for an adverb, it's “wohin”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “within” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable