längervsLasterTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#864
“länger” frequency rank
#11,691
“Laster” frequency rank
12555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature länger Laster
Definition Prädikative und adverbielle Form des Komparativs des Adjektivs lang eine schlechte Angewohnheit

Where the eye mixes länger and Laster

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. länger and Laster follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
länger
6 ch
Laster

Why the eye confuses länger with Laster

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: länger is [ˈlɛŋɐ] while Laster is [ˈlastɐ]. 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 12555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

länger is recorded at frequency rank #864, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛŋɐ]. Laster is at rank #11,691, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlastɐ].

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 12555, this pair ranks #1,963,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of länger vs Laster

Shared letters: elr. Private to "länger": gnä. Private to "Laster": ast.

"länger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Laster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Laster ← lasetr · lasster · lasterr · lastre · lastter · latser · llaster · lsater

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "länger" for "Laster" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "länger" is an adjective and "Laster" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "länger" or "Laster"?
"länger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #864 in our German list, against #11,691 for "Laster". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "länger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Laster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,963,465 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "länger" and "Laster" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lasern vs Laster". 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 #1,963,465 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