wurdevswürgenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“wurde” and “würgen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#76
“wurde” frequency rank
#29,877
“würgen” frequency rank
29953
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wurde würgen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs werden jemandem die Kehle zudrücken

Where the eye mixes wurde and würgen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wurde runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against würgen's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
wurde
6 ch
würgen

Why the eye confuses wurde with würgen

A purely visual mix-up. wurde ([ˈvʊʁdə]) and würgen ([ˈvʏʁɡn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wurde is recorded at frequency rank #76, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvʊʁdə]. würgen is at rank #29,877, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvʏʁɡn̩].

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 29953, this pair ranks #1,757,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wurde vs würgen

Shared letters: erw. Private to "wurde": du. Private to "würgen": gnü.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wurde ← uwrde · wrude · wudre · wurdde · wured · wurrde · wwurde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wurde" and "würgen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvʊʁdə] versus [ˈvʏʁɡn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "wurde" vs "würgen" - which ranks higher?
"wurde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our German list, against #29,877 for "würgen". 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 "wurde" and "würgen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wurde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "würgen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,757,113 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wurde" and "würgen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "würgen vs Würmern". 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 #1,757,113 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