Misspellings in German are a subcategory of orthographical errors (German: Rechtschreibfehler), counter the rules of German orthography. Although there is some variance following the current 'optional' status of the German spelling reform of 1996. Misspelling in German is less common than in English since most words are spelled as they are pronounced. Exceptions however occur, as for the (in modern German) identical "ä" and "e" both representing the IPA [ε] sound. Confusion can also occur with homonyms as verb prefixes: wiederspiegeln (incorrect) vs. widerspiegeln (correct).