WollevswolltenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,631
“Wolle” frequency rank
#1,048
“wollten” frequency rank
3679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wolle wollten
Definition aus Tierhaaren gewonnenes Produkt für die Herstellung von Garn 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs wollen

Where the eye mixes Wolle and wollten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Wolle runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against wollten's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Wolle
7 ch
wollten

Visual trap between Wolle and wollten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wolle is [ˈvɔlə] while wollten is [ˈvɔltn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wolle is recorded at frequency rank #2,631, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɔlə]. wollten is at rank #1,048, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɔltn̩].

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 3679, this pair ranks #1,999,644 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wolle vs wollten

Shared letters: elow. Private to "Wolle": -. Private to "wollten": nt.

"Wolle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wollten" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wolle ← owlle · wlole · wole · wolel · wwolle
  • wollten ← owllten · wlolten · wolletn · wolltenn · wolltne · wolltten · wolten · woltlen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wolle" and "wollten" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wolle" is a noun and "wollten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wolle" or "wollten" show up more?
"wollten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,048 in our German list, against #2,631 for "Wolle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Wolle" and "wollten" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wolle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wollten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,644 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wolle" and "wollten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "welke vs Wolle". 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 #1,999,644 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