ladevslandenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lade” and “landen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,399
“lade” frequency rank
#3,755
“landen” frequency rank
13154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lade landen
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs laden mit einem Wasserfahrzeug ans Land gelangen

Where the eye mixes lade and landen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lade runs 4 letters (CVCV) against landen's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lade
6 ch
landen

Look-alike desk: lade vs landen

A purely visual mix-up. lade ([ˈlaːdə]) and landen ([ˈlandn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lade is recorded at frequency rank #9,399, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlaːdə]. landen is at rank #3,755, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlandn̩].

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 13154, this pair ranks #1,959,780 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lade vs landen

Shared letters: adel. Private to "lade": -. Private to "landen": n.

"lade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "landen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lade ← alde · ladde · laed · ldae · llade
  • landen ← alnden · ladnen · landden · landenn · landne · lanedn · lannden · llanden

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lade" for "landen" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaːdə] versus [ˈlandn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lade" or "landen"?
"landen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,755 in our German list, against #9,399 for "lade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "landen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,780 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lade" and "landen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lade 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 #1,959,780 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