WölfevswolltTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,491
“Wölfe” frequency rank
#1,718
“wollt” frequency rank
10209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wölfe wollt
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Wolf 2. Person Plural Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wollen

Where the eye mixes Wölfe and wollt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Wölfe (CVCCV) and wollt (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
Wölfe
5 ch
wollt

Visual trap between Wölfe and wollt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wölfe is [ˈvœlfə] while wollt is [vɔlt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wölfe is recorded at frequency rank #8,491, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvœlfə]. wollt is at rank #1,718, tagged as averb, pronounced [vɔlt].

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 10209, this pair ranks #1,976,238 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wölfe vs wollt

Shared letters: lw. Private to "Wölfe": efö. Private to "wollt": ot.

"Wölfe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wollt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wollt ← owllt · wlolt · wolltt · wolt · woltl · wwollt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Wölfe" for "wollt" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wölfe" is a noun and "wollt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wölfe" or "wollt" show up more?
"wollt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,718 in our German list, against #8,491 for "Wölfe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wölfe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wollt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,976,238 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wölfe" and "wollt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "welke vs Wölfe". 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 #1,976,238 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