Which to use
“when” is an adverb and “won” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,973
- “when” frequency rank
- #28,023
- “won” frequency rank
- 38996
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | when | won |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Quand. | Unité monétaire de Corée du Sud, divisée en 100 jeons. Son symbole est ₩ (Unicode U+20A9). Son code ISO 4217 est KRW. |
Where the eye mixes when and won
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: when vs won
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: when is \ˈwɛn\ while won is \wɔn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
when is recorded at frequency rank #10,973, classified as anadv, pronounced \ˈwɛn\. won is at rank #28,023, tagged as anoun, pronounced \wɔn\.
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 38996, this pair ranks #251,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of when vs won
Shared letters: nw. Private to "when": eh. Private to "won": o.
"when" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "won" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- when ← hwen · wehn · whenn · whhen · whne · wwhen
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "when" for "won" ever safe?
Frequency check: "when" vs "won" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "when" and "won" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "when" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "won" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #251,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "when" and "won" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "won 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 #251,287 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.