lästernvsLetternConfusable pair

Quick tell: lästern is a verb, Lettern is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lästern” is a verb and “Lettern” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,671
“lästern” frequency rank
#35,889
“Lettern” frequency rank
67560
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lästern Lettern
Definition durch verächtliches Gerede beleidigen (insbesondere Gott, etwas Heiliges) Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Letter

Where the eye mixes lästern and Lettern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lästern and Lettern follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
lästern
7 ch
Lettern

Visual trap between lästern and Lettern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lästern is [ˈlɛstɐn] while Lettern is [ˈlɛtɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lästern is recorded at frequency rank #31,671, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlɛstɐn]. Lettern is at rank #35,889, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛtɐn].

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 67560, this pair ranks #536,152 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lästern vs Lettern

Shared letters: elnrt. Private to "lästern": sä. Private to "Lettern": -.

"lästern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "Lettern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lettern ← letetrn · lettenr · letternn · letterrn · lettren · llettern · ltetern

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lästern" and "Lettern" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lästern" is a verb and "Lettern" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "lästern" or "Lettern" show up more?
"lästern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,671 in our German list, against #35,889 for "Lettern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lästern" and "Lettern" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lästern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lettern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #536,152 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lästern" and "Lettern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs Lettern". 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 #536,152 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