lamevslanaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#49,857
“lame” frequency rank
#18,966
“lana” frequency rank
68823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lame lana
Definition dünne Platte, dünne Schicht, Klinge wollig, wollen, aus Wolle

Letter map: lame vs lana

Shared letters muted; letters that set lame and lana apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. lame and lana follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lame
4 ch
lana

Grammar separator: lame vs lana

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lame is anoun and lanaanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lame is recorded at frequency rank #49,857, classified as anoun, pronounced [lam]. lana is at rank #18,966, tagged as anadj.

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 68823, this pair ranks #495,758 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lame vs lana

Shared letters: al. Private to "lame": em. Private to "lana": n.

"lame" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lame ← alme · laem · lamme · llame · lmae
  • lana ← lanna · llana · lnaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lame" for "lana" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lame" is a noun and "lana" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lame" vs "lana" - which ranks higher?
"lana" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,966 in our German list, against #49,857 for "lame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lame" and "lana".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #495,758 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lame" and "lana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lähmt 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 #495,758 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