Which to use
“Lacke” is a noun and “laue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,413
- “Lacke” frequency rank
- #38,872
- “laue” frequency rank
- 84285
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Lacke | laue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | kleine Flüssigkeitsansammlung; Ansammlung von Regenwasser, Pfütze, kleines Gewässer | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs lau |
Where the eye mixes Lacke and laue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Lacke runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against laue's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: Lacke vs laue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lacke is [ˈlakə] while laue is [ˈlaʊ̯ə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Lacke is recorded at frequency rank #45,413, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlakə]. laue is at rank #38,872, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯ə].
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 84285, this pair ranks #126,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Lacke vs laue
Shared letters: ael. Private to "Lacke": ck. Private to "laue": u.
"Lacke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "laue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Lacke" for "laue" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Lacke" vs "laue" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Lacke" and "laue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Lacke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #126,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Lacke" and "laue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacke vs lame". 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 #126,179 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.