ladvsLosWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,418
“lad” frequency rank
#469
“Los” frequency rank
24887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lad Los
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs laden Schicksal, unbeeinflussbares Geschick

Where the eye mixes lad and Los

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

3 ch
lad
3 ch
Los

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lad is [laːt] while Los is [loːs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24887, 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]. Los is at rank #469, tagged as anoun, pronounced [loːs].

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 24887, this pair ranks #1,841,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lad vs Los

Shared letters: l. Private to "lad": ad. Private to "Los": os.

"lad" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lad" and "Los" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lad" is a verb and "Los" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lad" or "Los"?
"Los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #469 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.

What to do next

You've compared "lad" and "Los". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,841,206 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lad" and "Los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lad vs lame". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list