lang vs laws, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#403
“lang” frequency rank: #38,251
“laws” frequency rank: 38654
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lang	laws
Definition	große Ausmaße, große räumliche Ausmaße habend; über große Ausmaße, große Ausdehnung verfügend	Plural des Substantivs law

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lang and laws apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

lang

4 ch

laws

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lang is anadjective and lawsanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38654, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lang is recorded at frequency rank #403, classified as anadj, pronounced [laŋ]. laws is at rank #38,251, 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 38654, this pair ranks #1,558,203 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lang vs laws

Shared letters: al. Private to "lang": gn. Private to "laws": sw.

"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "laws" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

lang ← alng · lagn · langg · lanng · llang · lnag
laws ← alws · lasw · lawss · lawws · llaws · lwas

Frequency comparison

lang#403

laws#38,251

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lang" and "laws" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lang" is an adjective and "laws" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "lang" or "laws"?

"lang" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #403 in our German list, against #38,251 for "laws". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering lang vs laws

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “lang”; for a noun, it's “laws”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lang” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable