LaievsleiheWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Laie is a noun, leihe is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Laie” is a noun and “leihe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,639
“Laie” frequency rank
#27,394
“leihe” frequency rank
53033
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Laie leihe
Definition jemand, der auf einem bestimmten Gebiet keine Fachkenntnisse oder keine abgeschlossene Fachausbildung hat 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs leihen

Same sound, different letters: Laie vs leihe

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. Laie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against leihe's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Laie
5 ch
leihe

Homophone desk: Laie vs leihe

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Laie and leihe carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ˈlaɪ̯ə]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Laie is recorded at frequency rank #25,639, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯ə]. leihe is at rank #27,394, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯ə].

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 53033, this pair ranks #1,073,701 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Laie vs leihe

Shared letters: eil. Private to "Laie": a. Private to "leihe": h.

"Laie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "leihe" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Laie ← alie · laei · liae · llaie
  • leihe ← elihe · lehie · leieh · leihhe · liehe · lleihe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Laie" and "leihe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Laie" is a noun and "leihe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Laie" or "leihe"?
"Laie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,639 in our German list, against #27,394 for "leihe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Laie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leihe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,073,701 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Laie" and "leihe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leibes vs leihe". 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 #1,073,701 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