LavslnWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“La” and “ln” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#817
“La” frequency rank
#13,427
“ln” frequency rank
14244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature La ln
Definition Lanthan Mathematik: Bezeichnung für den natürlichen Logarithmus, den Logarithmus zur Basis e, der Eulerschen Zahl, Kurzschreibweise für logₑ

Letter map: La vs ln

Shared letters muted; letters that set La and ln apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
La
2 ch
ln

Pair insight - La / ln

La and ln are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “La” becomes n in “ln”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

La is recorded at frequency rank #817, classified as anabbrev. ln is at rank #13,427, tagged as anabbrev.

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 14244, this pair ranks #1,952,583 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of La vs ln

Shared letters: l. Private to "La": a. Private to "ln": n.

"La" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "ln" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "La" for "ln" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “La” becomes n in “ln”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "La" vs "ln" - which ranks higher?
"La" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #817 in our German list, against #13,427 for "ln". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "La" and "ln".

  • Full dictionary entry for "La" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ln" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,952,583 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "La" and "ln" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lai vs ln". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,952,583 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