wie

/[viː]/ adv

Letters

3 characters

Frequency Rank

#30

in German word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

wie is anGermanadv. It means: Als modales Interrogativadverb erfragt „wie“ ein Adverb beziehungsweise ein Adverbiale und damit die Art und Weise. Es steht stets an der Spitze eines Hauptsatzes oder eines Interrogativnebensatzes. Pronounced [viː]. It ranks #30 in German word frequency. Often confused with wo and WM.

Key facts for wie
PropertyValue
Headwordwie
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdv
IPA[viː]
Letters3
Frequency rank#30
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of wie in German word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The German entry for wie is 3 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [viː]. Corpus data places it at rank #30 in overall German word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for wie in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable German patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wo", "WM", "Wu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct German form is wie, spelled W-I-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Als modales Interrogativadverb erfragt „wie“ ein Adverb beziehungsweise ein Adverbiale und damit die Art und Weise. Es steht stets an der Spitze eines Hauptsatzes oder eines Interrogativnebensatzes.
  2. 2
    Wird „wie“ einem Adjektiv oder Adverb vorangestellt, erfragt es den jeweiligen Grad, den etwas hat beziehungsweise in dem etwas ist oder geschieht.
  3. 3
    in Ausrufen des Bedauerns, Erstaunens, der Freude
  4. 4
    als relativer Anschluss

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #30 in German

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "wie"?
"wie" is spelled W-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is [viː].
What does "wie" mean?
As an adv, "wie" means: Als modales Interrogativadverb erfragt „wie“ ein Adverb beziehungsweise ein Adverbiale und damit die Art und Weise. Es steht stets an der Spitze eines Hauptsatzes oder eines Interrogativnebensatzes.
What words are commonly confused with "wie"?
"wie" is commonly confused with "wo", "WM", "Wu". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "wie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "wie" is [viː]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "wie" come from?
"wie" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby German words

Other entries that begin with the letter W in our German index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.