LalavslaueTell them apart

Quick tell: Lala is a noun, laue is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lala” is a noun and “laue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,660
“Lala” frequency rank
#38,872
“laue” frequency rank
69532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lala laue
Definition Erzieher und Zeremonienmeister an Höfen im Osmanischen Reich Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs lau

Where the eye mixes Lala and laue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Lala (CVCV) and laue (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Lala
4 ch
laue

Visual trap between Lala and laue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lala is [laˈlaː] while laue is [ˈlaʊ̯ə]. 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 69532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lala is recorded at frequency rank #30,660, classified as anoun, pronounced [laˈlaː]. laue is at rank #38,872, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯ə].

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 69532, this pair ranks #473,706 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lala vs laue

Shared letters: al. Private to "Lala": -. Private to "laue": eu.

"Lala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "laue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lala ← laal · lalla · llaa · llala
  • laue ← alue · laeu · llaue · luae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lala" for "laue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lala" is a noun and "laue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Lala" or "laue"?
"Lala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,660 in our German list, against #38,872 for "laue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #473,706 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lala" and "laue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs laue". 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 #473,706 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