wurdevswürdigWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wurde is a verb, würdig is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wurde” is a verb and “würdig” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#76
“wurde” frequency rank
#11,792
“würdig” frequency rank
11868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wurde würdig
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs werden etwas verdient habend; so, dass jemandem etwas zusteht

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wurde and würdig apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
wurde
6 ch
würdig

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wurde is [ˈvʊʁdə] while würdig is [ˈvʏʁdɪç]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wurde is recorded at frequency rank #76, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvʊʁdə]. würdig is at rank #11,792, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvʏʁdɪç].

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 11868, this pair ranks #1,967,473 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wurde vs würdig

Shared letters: drw. Private to "wurde": eu. Private to "würdig": giü.

"wurde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "würdig" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wurdeuwrde · wrude · wudre · wurdde · wured · wurrde · wwurde

Frequency comparison

wurde#76
würdig#11,792

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wurde" and "würdig" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wurde" is a verb and "würdig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wurde" or "würdig"?
"wurde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our German list, against #11,792 for "würdig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering wurde vs würdig

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “wurde”; for an adjective, it's “würdig”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wurde” 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