langvslangesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#403
“lang” frequency rank
#7,500
“langes” frequency rank
7903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lang langes
Definition große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend Nominativ Singular Neutrum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs lang

Where the eye mixes lang and langes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lang
6 ch
langes

Why the eye confuses lang with langes

A purely visual mix-up. lang ([laŋ]) and langes ([ˈlaŋəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lang” sits inside “langes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lang is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anadj, pronounced [laŋ]. langes is at rank #7,500, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaŋəs].

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 7903, this pair ranks #1,986,401 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lang vs langes

Shared letters: agln. Private to "lang": -. Private to "langes": es.

"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "langes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • langalng · lagn · langg · lanng · llang · lnag
  • langesalnges · lagnes · lanegs · langess · langges · langse · lannges · llanges

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lang" and "langes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([laŋ] versus [ˈlaŋəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lang" or "langes"?
"lang" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #403 in our German list, against #7,500 for "langes". 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 "lang" and "langes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "langes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,986,401 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lang" and "langes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lands vs langes". 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 #1,986,401 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