Which to use
“well” and “went” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,510
- “well” frequency rank
- #46,529
- “went” frequency rank
- 63039
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | well | went |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de wellen. | Prétérit de go. |
Where the eye mixes well and went
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. well and went follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between well and went
A purely visual mix-up. well (\vɛl\) and went (\ˈwɛnt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
well is recorded at frequency rank #16,510, classified as averb, pronounced \vɛl\. 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 63039, this pair ranks #83,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of well vs went
Shared letters: ew. Private to "well": l. Private to "went": nt.
"well" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "went" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "well" for "went" ever safe?
Which is more common, "well" or "went"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "well" and "went" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "well" 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 #83,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "well" 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 #83,994 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.