Which to use
“Laken” is a noun and “lauen” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,291
- “Laken” frequency rank
- #42,647
- “lauen” frequency rank
- 77938
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Laken | lauen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | großes Tuch, mit dem eine Matratze abgedeckt wird | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs lau |
Where the eye mixes Laken and lauen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Laken (CVCVC) and lauen (CVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: Laken vs lauen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Laken is [ˈlaːkn̩] while lauen is [ˈlaʊ̯ən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “Laken” becomes u in “lauen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Laken is recorded at frequency rank #35,291, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaːkn̩]. lauen is at rank #42,647, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯ən].
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 77938, this pair ranks #249,473 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Laken vs lauen
Shared letters: aeln. Private to "Laken": k. Private to "lauen": u.
"Laken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lauen" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Laken" and "lauen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "Laken" vs "lauen" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Laken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lauen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #249,473 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Laken" and "lauen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lasern vs lauen". 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 #249,473 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.