Which to use
“landen” and “laufen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,755
- “landen” frequency rank
- #765
- “laufen” frequency rank
- 4520
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | landen | laufen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mit einem Wasserfahrzeug ans Land gelangen | sich auf den Beinen oder Gliedmaßen fortbewegen; regional verschieden hat dieses Verb die Grundbedeutung „schnell gehen“ oder mit „mäßiger Geschwindigkeit gehen“, aber es wird überregional für mäßiges (bzw. langsames) Gehen in dem Ausdruck „das Kind läuft schon“ benutzt und wird in entsprechendem Kontext auch in solchen Regionen als mäßiges Gehen verstanden, wo üblicherweise „gehen“ statt „laufen“ benutzt wird (z.B. „nach Hause laufen“, süddeutsch und österreichisch „nach Hause gehen“) |
Where the eye mixes landen and laufen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: landen vs laufen
A purely visual mix-up. landen ([ˈlandn̩]) and laufen ([ˈlaʊ̯fn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4520, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
landen is recorded at frequency rank #3,755, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlandn̩]. laufen is at rank #765, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯fn̩].
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 4520, this pair ranks #1,997,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of landen vs laufen
Shared letters: aeln. Private to "landen": d. Private to "laufen": fu.
"landen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "laufen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "landen" and "laufen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "landen" or "laufen" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "landen" and "laufen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "landen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laufen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,997,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "landen" and "laufen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "landen vs lenzen". 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 #1,997,475 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.