Which to use
“lang” and “lau” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #403
- “lang” frequency rank
- #16,210
- “lau” frequency rank
- 16613
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lang | lau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend | von einer mittleren Temperatur zwischen kühl und warm |
Where the eye mixes lang and lau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. lang ([laŋ]) and lau ([laʊ̯]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lang is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anadj, pronounced [laŋ]. lau is at rank #16,210, tagged as anadj, pronounced [laʊ̯].
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 16613, this pair ranks #1,934,401 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lang vs lau
Shared letters: al. Private to "lang": gn. Private to "lau": u.
"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lau" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lang ← alng · lagn · langg · lanng · llang · lnag