Deutsch homophones
lahm/lame/Lamm
"lahm" is an adjective; "lame" is a noun - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 483 German groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "lahm" arrives as an adjective, while "lame" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "la" then splits - "lahm" (4 letters) vs "lame" (4).
- Shared stem "la" then splits - "lahm" (4 letters) vs "Lamm" (4).
- Single-letter fork: "lame" keeps e, "Lamm" writes m at letter 4.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across lahm, lame, Lamm: alm. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
lahm
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory ahlm · private h
lame
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCV
Inventory aelm · private e
Lamm
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory alm · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "lahm" when you mean: gelähmt und daher unbeweglich
- Write "lame" when you mean: dünne Platte, dünne Schicht, Klinge
- Write "Lamm" when you mean: das junge Schaf
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.