fritesvslamaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: frites is a noun, lama is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“frites” is a noun and “lama” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,355
“frites” frequency rank
#17,641
“lama” frequency rank
56996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frites lama
Definition Deutsch: Fritte, Fritten alt

Letter map: frites vs lama

Shared letters muted; letters that set frites and lama apart highlighted. No shared letter run. frites runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against lama's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
frites
4 ch
lama

Grammar separator: frites vs lama

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: frites is anoun and lamaanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frites is recorded at frequency rank #39,355, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. lama is at rank #17,641, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].

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 56996, this pair ranks #918,573 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frites vs lama

Shared letters: none. Private to "frites": efirst. Private to "lama": alm.

"frites" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "lama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frites ← ffrites · firtes · friets · fritess · fritse · frittes · frrites · frties
  • lama ← laam · lamma · llama · lmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "frites" and "lama" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frites" is a noun and "lama" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "frites" or "lama" show up more?
"lama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,641 in our German list, against #39,355 for "frites". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "frites" vs "lama" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "frites" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #918,573 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frites" and "lama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frites vs puzzles". 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 #918,573 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list