LagevslakeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#584
“Lage” frequency rank
#10,319
“lake” frequency rank
10903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lage lake
Definition Stelle, an der etwas liegt Stillgewässer, das vollständig von einer Landfläche umgeben ist; See

Where the eye mixes Lage and lake

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Lage and lake follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Lage
4 ch
lake

Visual trap between Lage and lake

A purely visual mix-up. Lage ([ˈlaːɡə]) and lake ([leɪk]) 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 a single letter - g in “Lage” becomes k in “lake”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lage is recorded at frequency rank #584, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaːɡə]. lake is at rank #10,319, tagged as anoun, pronounced [leɪk].

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 10903, this pair ranks #1,972,718 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lage vs lake

Shared letters: ael. Private to "Lage": g. Private to "lake": k.

"Lage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lagealge · laeg · lagge · lgae · llage
  • lakealke · laek · lakke · lkae · llake

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lage" and "lake" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaːɡə] versus [leɪk]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Lage" vs "lake" - which ranks higher?
"Lage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #584 in our German list, against #10,319 for "lake". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Lage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,972,718 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lage" and "lake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lake 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 #1,972,718 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