Deutsch homophones

Leid/leiht/light

"Leid" is a noun; "leiht" is a verb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #5 of 483 German groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "Leid" arrives as a noun, while "leiht" is a verb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • Shared stem "lei" then splits - "Leid" (4 letters) vs "leiht" (5).
  • No shared spelling stem: "Leid" is 4 letters, "light" is 5; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "leiht" is 5 letters, "light" is 5; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Leid, leiht, light: il. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • Leid

    4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC

    Inventory deil · private de

  • leiht

    5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC

    Inventory ehilt · private eht

  • light

    5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCCC

    Inventory ghilt · private ght

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "Leid" when you mean: starker Kummer, starker psychischer oder seelischer Schmerz
  • Write "leiht" when you mean: 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs leihen
  • Write "light" when you mean: geringere Mengen eines ungesunden Stoffs enthaltend als sonst üblich

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • Leidelid · ledi · leidd · lleid
  • leihteliht · lehit · leihht · leihtt · leith · lieht
  • lightilght · lgiht · ligght · lighht · lightt · ligth

Each spelling

Leid

noun · /laɪ̯t/ · #1,263 frequency

starker Kummer, starker psychischer oder seelischer Schmerz

leiht

verb · /laɪ̯t/ · #25,647 frequency

2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs leihen

light

adjective · /laɪ̯t/ · #6,950 frequency

geringere Mengen eines ungesunden Stoffs enthaltend als sonst üblich

Nearby German homophone groups

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list