wovsWohlWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wo is a adverb, Wohl is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wo” is an adverb and “Wohl” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#123
“wo” frequency rank
#174
“Wohl” frequency rank
297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wo Wohl
Definition an welchem Ort, an welcher Stelle Zustand des Gutgehens, körperlich und geistig, auch Gesundheit und Glück

Where the eye mixes wo and Wohl

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
wo
4 ch
Wohl

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wo is [voː] while Wohl is [voːl]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “wo” sits inside “Wohl”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wo is recorded at frequency rank #123, classified as anadv, pronounced [voː]. Wohl is at rank #174, tagged as anoun, pronounced [voːl].

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 297, this pair ranks #2,006,031 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wo vs Wohl

Shared letters: ow. Private to "wo": -. Private to "Wohl": hl.

"wo" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Wohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wohlowhl · whol · wohhl · wohll · wolh · wwohl

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wo" and "Wohl" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wo" is an adverb and "Wohl" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wo" or "Wohl"?
"wo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #123 in our German list, against #174 for "Wohl". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "wo" and "Wohl". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wohl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,006,031 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wo" and "Wohl" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wiehl vs Wohl". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list