lad vs le, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“lad” is a verb and “le” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,418
“lad” frequency rank: #1,852
“le” frequency rank: 26270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lad	le
Definition	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs laden	der, die, das

Where the eye mixes lad and le

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

lad

2 ch

Look-alike desk: lad vs le

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lad is [laːt] while le is [lə]. 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 determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lad is recorded at frequency rank #24,418, classified as averb, pronounced [laːt]. le is at rank #1,852, tagged as adet, pronounced [lə].

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 26270, this pair ranks #1,820,652 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lad vs le

Shared letters: l. Private to "lad": ad. Private to "le": e.

"lad" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "le" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lad" for "le" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lad" is a verb and "le" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "lad" or "le"?

"le" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,852 in our German list, against #24,418 for "lad". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "lad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "le" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,820,652 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lad" and "le" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lad vs lame". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,820,652 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.