LändervsLändleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Länder” and “Ländle” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,116
“Länder” frequency rank
#44,058
“Ländle” frequency rank
45174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Länder Ländle
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Land das Bundesland Baden-Württemberg (die Landschaft Schwaben)

Where the eye mixes Länder and Ländle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Länder
6 ch
Ländle

Look-alike desk: Länder vs Ländle

A purely visual mix-up. Länder ([ˈlɛndɐ]) and Ländle ([ˈlɛntlə]) 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 45174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Länder is recorded at frequency rank #1,116, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛndɐ]. Ländle is at rank #44,058, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛntlə].

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 45174, this pair ranks #1,361,981 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Länder vs Ländle

Shared letters: delnä. Private to "Länder": r. Private to "Ländle": -.

"Länder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Ländle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Länder" for "Ländle" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlɛndɐ] versus [ˈlɛntlə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Länder" vs "Ländle" - which ranks higher?
"Länder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,116 in our German list, against #44,058 for "Ländle". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Länder" and "Ländle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Länder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ländle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,361,981 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Länder" and "Ländle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ländle vs Lands". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,361,981 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