langvslawWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#403
“lang” frequency rank
#8,097
“law” frequency rank
8500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lang law
Definition große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend Gesetz

Letter map: lang vs law

Shared letters muted; letters that set lang and law apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
lang
3 ch
law

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lang is anadjective and lawanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lang is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anadj, pronounced [laŋ]. law is at rank #8,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 8500, this pair ranks #1,984,035 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lang vs law

Shared letters: al. Private to "lang": gn. Private to "law": w.

"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "law" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lang" and "law" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lang" is an adjective and "law" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lang" or "law"?
"lang" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #403 in our German list, against #8,097 for "law". 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 "law". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "law" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,984,035 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lang" and "law" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "law vs puzzles". 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