WundervswurdenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,797
“Wunder” frequency rank
#149
“wurden” frequency rank
1946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wunder wurden
Definition etwas, das über das alltägliche Verständnis hinausgeht; eine Überschreitung der anerkannten Naturgesetze 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs werden

Where the eye mixes Wunder and wurden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Wunder
6 ch
wurden

Why the eye confuses Wunder with wurden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wunder is [ˈvʊndɐ] while wurden is [ˈvʊʁdn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wunder is recorded at frequency rank #1,797, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvʊndɐ]. wurden is at rank #149, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvʊʁdn̩].

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 1946, this pair ranks #2,003,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wunder vs wurden

Shared letters: denruw. Private to "Wunder": -. Private to "wurden": -.

"Wunder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wurden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wunderuwnder · wnuder · wudner · wundder · wunderr · wundre · wunedr · wunnder
  • wurdenuwrden · wruden · wudren · wurdden · wurdenn · wurdne · wuredn · wurrden

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wunder" and "wurden" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wunder" is a noun and "wurden" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wunder" or "wurden" show up more?
"wurden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #149 in our German list, against #1,797 for "Wunder". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wunder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wurden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,003,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wunder" and "wurden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wunder vs Wupper". 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 #2,003,415 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