wohnenvswomenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,619
“wohnen” frequency rank
#15,001
“women” frequency rank
16620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wohnen women
Definition wesentliche Zeit seines Lebens an einem bestimmten, geschützten Ort verbringen Plural des Substantivs woman

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
wohnen
5 ch
women

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wohnen is [ˈvoːnən] while women is [ˈwɪmɨn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wohnen is recorded at frequency rank #1,619, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvoːnən]. women is at rank #15,001, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈwɪmɨn].

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 16620, this pair ranks #1,934,342 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wohnen vs women

Shared letters: enow. Private to "wohnen": h. Private to "women": m.

"wohnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "women" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wohnenowhnen · whonen · wohenn · wohhnen · wohnenn · wohnne · wohnnen · wonhen
  • womenowmen · wmoen · woemn · womenn · wommen · womne · wwomen

Frequency comparison

wohnen#1,619
women#15,001

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wohnen" and "women" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wohnen" is a verb and "women" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wohnen" or "women"?
"wohnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,619 in our German list, against #15,001 for "women". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering wohnen vs women

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list