WohlwollenvswohlwollendWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Wohlwollen is a noun, wohlwollend is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wohlwollen” is a noun and “wohlwollend” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,949
“Wohlwollen” frequency rank
#24,205
“wohlwollend” frequency rank
53154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wohlwollen wohlwollend
Definition positive Einstellung gegenüber jemandem oder etwas einer anderen Person gegenüber gütig eingestellt; für diese Person und ihre Situation Verständnis und Einsicht zeigend, ihr positiv und freundlich gegenüberstehend

Where the eye mixes Wohlwollen and wohlwollend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.

10 ch
Wohlwollen
11 ch
wohlwollend

Visual trap between Wohlwollen and wohlwollend

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wohlwollen is [ˈvoːlˌvɔlən] while wohlwollend is [ˈvoːlˌvɔlənt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Wohlwollen” sits inside “wohlwollend”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wohlwollen is recorded at frequency rank #28,949, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvoːlˌvɔlən]. wohlwollend is at rank #24,205, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvoːlˌvɔlənt].

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 53154, this pair ranks #1,069,093 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wohlwollen vs wohlwollend

Shared letters: ehlnow. Private to "Wohlwollen": -. Private to "wohlwollend": d.

"Wohlwollen" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC  ·  "wohlwollend" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wohlwollenowhlwollen · wholwollen · wohhlwollen · wohllwollen · wohlowllen · wohlwlolen · wohlwoleln · wohlwolen
  • wohlwollendowhlwollend · wholwollend · wohhlwollend · wohllwollend · wohlowllend · wohlwlolend · wohlwolelnd · wohlwolend

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wohlwollen" and "wohlwollend" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wohlwollen" is a noun and "wohlwollend" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wohlwollen" or "wohlwollend" show up more?
"wohlwollend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,205 in our German list, against #28,949 for "Wohlwollen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wohlwollen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wohlwollend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,069,093 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #1,069,093 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