wann

[van]

/[van]/ adv

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“wann” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #592) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#592
frequency rank, German
2,930
“W” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - zu welchem Zeitpunkt

Corpus desk

Index DE-wann · wann · German

wann · rank #592 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #592
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,930
  • PHOTO-FINISH voll

Nearest frequency peer: voll (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „wann“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „wann“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

wann vs war
50% similar
wann vs was
50% similar
wann vs wen
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for wann
PropertyValue
Headwordwann
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdverb
IPA[van]
Letters4
Frequency rank#592
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „wann“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.wannliegt auf dieser Marke:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „voll“ (#591), „wieso“ (#593), „verstehen“ (#590). Unter 2,930 „W“-Lemmata liegt „wann“ bei #592. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for wann is neighbouring look-alikes ("war", "was", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced [van]. Frequency #592 among 2,930 “W” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for wann, with forms such as "awnn", "wan", and "wnan". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "war", "was", "wen", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct German form is wann, spelled W-A-N-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    zu welchem Zeitpunkt
  2. 2
    in welchem Zeitraum
  3. 3
    unter welcher Bedingung, mit welcher Voraussetzung

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how wann appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Wann hast du Schluss gemacht?
  2. „Wann uns Wind und Sonne genug Strom bereitstellen und wann nicht, liegt nicht in unserer Macht.“

Synonyms

JahrMonatDatumUhrzeit

This word in other languages

when(English)cuándo(Español)quand(Français)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • awnn
  • wan
  • wnan
  • wwann

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wann - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

awnn2wan1wnan2wwann1
Edit distance from "wann"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "wann"?
"wann" is spelled W-A-N-N. The IPA pronunciation is [van].
What does "wann" mean?
As an adverb, "wann" means: zu welchem Zeitpunkt
What words are commonly confused with "wann"?
"wann" is commonly confused with "war", "was", "wen". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "wann"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "wann" is [van]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "wann" come from?
"wann" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wann", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

voll#591Lage#584rein#605Ziel#576

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list