lacvslagWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lac is a noun, lag is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lac” is a noun and “lag” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,041
“lac” frequency rank
#906
“lag” frequency rank
37947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lac lag
Definition See 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs liegen

Same sound, different letters: lac vs lag

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

3 ch
lac
3 ch
lag

Same sound, different spelling - lac / lag

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lac and lag carry the same recorded pronunciation, [lak]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - c in “lac” becomes g in “lag”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lac is recorded at frequency rank #37,041, classified as anoun, pronounced [lak]. lag is at rank #906, tagged as averb, pronounced [laːk].

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 37947, this pair ranks #1,576,910 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lac vs lag

Shared letters: al. Private to "lac": c. Private to "lag": g.

"lac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lag" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lac" and "lag" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lac" is a noun and "lag" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lac" vs "lag" - which ranks higher?
"lag" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #906 in our German list, against #37,041 for "lac". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lag" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,576,910 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lac" and "lag" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lac vs lame". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,576,910 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