lad vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#24,418
“lad” frequency rank: #44,056
“lui” frequency rank: 68474
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lad	lui
Definition	2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs laden	er

Where the eye mixes lad and lui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. lad (CVC) and lui (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch

lad

3 ch

lui

Why the eye confuses lad with lui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lad is [laːt] while lui is [lɥi]. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68474, 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]. lui is at rank #44,056, tagged as apron, pronounced [lɥi].

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 68474, this pair ranks #506,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lad vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "lad": ad. Private to "lui": iu.

"lad" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lad" and "lui" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

In ordinary German text, does "lad" or "lui" show up more?

"lad" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,418 in our German list, against #44,056 for "lui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lad" and "lui" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "lad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #506,579 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lad" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lori vs lui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #506,579 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.