lachtevslateConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#13,642
“lachte” frequency rank
#14,348
“late” frequency rank
27990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lachte late
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs lachen spät

Letter map: lachte vs late

Shared letters muted; letters that set lachte and late apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
lachte
4 ch
late

Grammar separator: lachte vs late

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lachte is averb and lateanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lachte is recorded at frequency rank #13,642, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlaxtə]. late is at rank #14,348, 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 27990, this pair ranks #1,792,448 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lachte vs late

Shared letters: aelt. Private to "lachte": ch. Private to "late": -.

"lachte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lachtealchte · lacchte · lachet · lachhte · lachtte · lacthe · lahcte · lcahte
  • latelaet · llate · ltae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lachte" and "late" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lachte" is a verb and "late" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lachte" vs "late" - which ranks higher?
"lachte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,642 in our German list, against #14,348 for "late". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lachte" and "late". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lachte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "late" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,792,448 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lachte" and "late" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "late 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 #1,792,448 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