we'vevsweaveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: we've is a contraction, weave is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“we've” is a contraction and “weave” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#983
“we've” frequency rank
#14,455
“weave” frequency rank
15438
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature we've weave
Definition Contraction of we + have. To form something by passing lengths or strands of material over and under one another.

Same sound, different letters: we've vs weave

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
we've
5 ch
weave

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: we've and weave carry the same recorded pronunciation, /wiːv/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is acontraction, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - ' in “we've” becomes a in “weave”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

we've is recorded at frequency rank #983, classified as acontraction, pronounced /wiːv/. weave is at rank #14,455, tagged as averb, pronounced /wiːv/.

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 15438, this pair ranks #463,968 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of we've vs weave

Shared letters: evw. Private to "we've": -. Private to "weave": a.

"we've" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "weave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weaveewave · waeve · weaev · weavve · wevae · wweave

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "we've" and "weave" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "we've" is a contraction and "weave" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "we've" or "weave"?
"we've" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #983 in our English list, against #14,455 for "weave". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list