Which to use
“lady” is a noun and “lang” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,599
- “lady” frequency rank
- #403
- “lang” frequency rank
- 4002
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lady | lang |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | höfliche Bezeichnung weiblicher Person(en) | große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend |
Where the eye mixes lady and lang
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lady (CVCV) and lang (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses lady with lang
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lady is [ˈleɪdi] while lang is [laŋ]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lady is recorded at frequency rank #3,599, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈleɪdi]. lang is at rank #403, tagged as anadj, pronounced [laŋ].
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 4002, this pair ranks #1,998,822 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lady vs lang
Shared letters: al. Private to "lady": dy. Private to "lang": gn.
"lady" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lady" and "lang" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "lady" or "lang" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lady" and "lang" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lady" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lang" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,998,822 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lady" and "lang" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lady 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 #1,998,822 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.