LavslasTell them apart

Quick tell: La is a abbrev, las is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“La” is an abbrev and “las” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#817
“La” frequency rank
#3,265
“las” frequency rank
4082
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature La las
Definition Lanthan 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs lesen

Letter map: La vs las

Shared letters muted; letters that set La and las apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
La
3 ch
las

Part-of-speech tell for La / las

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: La is anabbrev and lasaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “La” sits inside “las”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

La is recorded at frequency rank #817, classified as anabbrev. las is at rank #3,265, tagged as averb, pronounced [laːs].

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 4082, this pair ranks #1,998,628 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of La vs las

Shared letters: al. Private to "La": -. Private to "las": s.

"La" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "las" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "La" and "las" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "La" is an abbrev and "las" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "La" or "las"?
"La" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #817 in our German list, against #3,265 for "las". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "La" vs "las" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "La" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "las" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,998,628 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "La" and "las" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs las". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,998,628 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