LagevslieWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#584
“Lage” frequency rank
#16,480
“lie” frequency rank
17064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lage lie
Definition Stelle, an der etwas liegt Bodensatz eines flüssigen Körpers

Where the eye mixes Lage and lie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Lage
3 ch
lie

Visual trap between Lage and lie

A purely visual mix-up. Lage ([ˈlaːɡə]) and lie ([li]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lage is recorded at frequency rank #584, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaːɡə]. lie is at rank #16,480, tagged as anoun, pronounced [li].

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 17064, this pair ranks #1,930,666 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lage vs lie

Shared letters: el. Private to "Lage": ag. Private to "lie": i.

"Lage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lie" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lagealge · laeg · lagge · lgae · llage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lage" and "lie" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaːɡə] versus [li]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Lage" or "lie"?
"Lage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #584 in our German list, against #16,480 for "lie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,930,666 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lage" and "lie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs lie". 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 #1,930,666 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