Deutsch homophones
Li/lie/lieh
"Li" is a name; "lie" 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: "Li" arrives as a name, while "lie" is a noun. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "li" then splits - "Li" (2 letters) vs "lie" (3).
- Shared stem "li" then splits - "Li" (2 letters) vs "lieh" (4).
- Shared stem "lie" then splits - "lie" (3 letters) vs "lieh" (4).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across Li, lie, lieh: il. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
Li
2 letters · 1 vowels · shape CV
Inventory il · no private letters vs siblings
lie
3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV
Inventory eil · private e
lieh
4 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVC
Inventory ehil · private eh
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "Li" when you mean: Familienname, Nachname
- Write "lie" when you mean: Bodensatz eines flüssigen Körpers
- Write "lieh" when you mean: 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs leihen
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- lieh ← ileh · liehh · lihe · llieh