Which to use
“Blei” is a noun and “bleu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,614
- “Blei” frequency rank
- #47,273
- “bleu” frequency rank
- 58887
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Blei | bleu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | silbernes, leicht verformbares, toxisch wirkendes Metall | eine blass- bis mittelblaue Farbe habend, die ins Grünliche oder Gräuliche geht |
Where the eye mixes Blei and bleu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Blei and bleu follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses Blei with bleu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Blei is [blaɪ̯] while bleu is [bløː]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “Blei” becomes u in “bleu”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Blei is recorded at frequency rank #11,614, classified as anoun, pronounced [blaɪ̯]. bleu is at rank #47,273, tagged as anadj, pronounced [bløː].
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 58887, this pair ranks #845,533 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Blei vs bleu
Shared letters: bel. Private to "Blei": i. Private to "bleu": u.
"Blei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "bleu" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Blei" for "bleu" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "Blei" or "bleu" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Blei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bleu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #845,533 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Blei" and "bleu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bleu vs Böen". 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 #845,533 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.