labervslängerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: laber is a verb, länger is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laber” is a verb and “länger” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,469
“laber” frequency rank
#864
“länger” frequency rank
37333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laber länger
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs labern Prädikative und adverbielle Form des Komparativs des Adjektivs lang

Where the eye mixes laber and länger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. laber runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against länger's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
laber
6 ch
länger

Visual trap between laber and länger

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laber is [ˈlaːbɐ] while länger is [ˈlɛŋɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laber is recorded at frequency rank #36,469, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlaːbɐ]. länger is at rank #864, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛŋɐ].

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 37333, this pair ranks #1,592,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laber vs länger

Shared letters: elr. Private to "laber": ab. Private to "länger": gnä.

"laber" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "länger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laber ← alber · labber · laberr · labre · laebr · lbaer · llaber

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laber" and "länger" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laber" is a verb and "länger" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "laber" or "länger" show up more?
"länger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #864 in our German list, against #36,469 for "laber". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "länger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,592,952 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laber" and "länger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laber vs Lasern". 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 #1,592,952 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