weirvswentTell them apart

Quick tell: weir is a noun, went is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weir” is a noun and “went” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,659
“weir” frequency rank
#46,529
“went” frequency rank
83188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weir went
Definition Barrage ajustable, servant d’écluse ou de déversoir pour les mesures de débit. Prétérit de go.

Where the eye mixes weir and went

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. weir (CVVC) and went (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
weir
4 ch
went

Visual trap between weir and went

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weir is \wɪ.ɚ\ while went is \ˈwɛnt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weir is recorded at frequency rank #36,659, classified as anoun, pronounced \wɪ.ɚ\. went is at rank #46,529, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈwɛnt\.

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 83188, this pair ranks #15,293 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of weir vs went

Shared letters: ew. Private to "weir": ir. Private to "went": nt.

"weir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "went" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weir ← ewir · weirr · weri · wier · wweir
  • went ← ewnt · wennt · wentt · wetn · wnet · wwent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "weir" for "went" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weir" is a noun and "went" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "weir" or "went" show up more?
"weir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,659 in our French list, against #46,529 for "went". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "went" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,293 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weir" and "went" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs wren". 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 #15,293 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list