langvsLärmWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lang is a adjective, Lärm is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#403
“lang” frequency rank
#5,622
“Lärm” frequency rank
6025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lang Lärm
Definition große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend subjektiv als unangenehm empfundener Schall, der unerwünschte Auswirkungen auf den Menschen hat (etwa das Gehör schädigt, krank machen kann, stört oder belästigt)

Where the eye mixes lang and Lärm

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
lang
4 ch
Lärm

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lang is [laŋ] while Lärm is [lɛʁm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lang is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anadj, pronounced [laŋ]. Lärm is at rank #5,622, tagged as anoun, pronounced [lɛʁm].

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 6025, this pair ranks #1,992,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lang vs Lärm

Shared letters: l. Private to "lang": agn. Private to "Lärm": mrä.

"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Lärm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • langalng · lagn · langg · lanng · llang · lnag

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lang" and "Lärm" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lang" is an adjective and "Lärm" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lang" or "Lärm"?
"lang" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #403 in our German list, against #5,622 for "Lärm". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "lang" and "Lärm". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lärm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,992,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lang" and "Lärm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lähmt vs Lärm". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list