wem

[veːm]

/[veːm]/ pron

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

The verdict

“wem” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,002) as a pronoun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,002
frequency rank, German
2,930
“W” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dativ von wer

Corpus desk

Index DE-wem · wem · German

wem · rank #2,002 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,002
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,930
  • PHOTO-FINISH Weihnachten

Nearest frequency peer: Weihnachten (-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.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “wem”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “wem” against nearest ranked German headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

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).

wem vs wo
33% similar
wem vs WM
0% similar
wem vs wi
33% similar

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

Key facts for wem
PropertyValue
Headwordwem
LanguageGerman
Part of speechPronoun
IPA[veːm]
Letters3
Frequency rank#2,002
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Wo “wem” in der deutschen Häufigkeit sitzt

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.wemliegt hier:

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. In derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite liegen „Weihnachten“ (#2,001), „Wilhelm“ (#2,003), „Vorteil“ (#2,000). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for wem is neighbouring look-alikes ("wo", "WM", …), not just typos; it is apronoun pronounced [veːm]. Frequency #2,002 among 2,930 “W” headwords. Gloss: "Dativ von wer".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for wem, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wo", "WM", "wi", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct German form is wem, spelled W-E-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dativ von wer

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Wem soll ich helfen?

This word in other languages

whom(English)

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 "wem"?
"wem" is spelled W-E-M. The IPA pronunciation is [veːm].
What does "wem" mean?
As a pronoun, "wem" means: Dativ von wer
What words are commonly confused with "wem"?
"wem" is commonly confused with "wo", "WM", "wi". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "wem"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "wem" is [veːm]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "wem" come from?
"wem" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "wem", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

red#1,935NRW#2,079one#1,899Eis#2,144

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list