wurdenvswürfelnConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#149
“wurden” frequency rank
#22,577
“würfeln” frequency rank
22726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wurden würfeln
Definition 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs werden mit einem Würfel spielen

Where the eye mixes wurden and würfeln

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

6 ch
wurden
7 ch
würfeln

Look-alike desk: wurden vs würfeln

A purely visual mix-up. wurden ([ˈvʊʁdn̩]) and würfeln ([ˈvʏʁfl̩n]) 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 22726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wurden is recorded at frequency rank #149, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvʊʁdn̩]. würfeln is at rank #22,577, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvʏʁfl̩n].

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 22726, this pair ranks #1,870,528 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wurden vs würfeln

Shared letters: enrw. Private to "wurden": du. Private to "würfeln": flü.

"wurden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "würfeln" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wurdenuwrden · wruden · wudren · wurdden · wurdenn · wurdne · wuredn · wurrden

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wurden" for "würfeln" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvʊʁdn̩] versus [ˈvʏʁfl̩n]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "wurden" or "würfeln" show up more?
"wurden" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #149 in our German list, against #22,577 for "würfeln". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wurden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "würfeln" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,870,528 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wurden" and "würfeln" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "würfeln 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 #1,870,528 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