latevslebeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: late is a adjective, lebe is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“late” is an adjective and “lebe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,348
“late” frequency rank
#2,905
“lebe” frequency rank
17253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature late lebe
Definition spät 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs leben

Letter map: late vs lebe

Shared letters muted; letters that set late and lebe apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
late
4 ch
lebe

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: late is anadjective and lebeaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

late is recorded at frequency rank #14,348, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. lebe is at rank #2,905, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈleːbə].

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 17253, this pair ranks #1,929,034 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of late vs lebe

Shared letters: el. Private to "late": at. Private to "lebe": b.

"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lebe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latelaet · llate · ltae
  • lebelbee · lebbe · leeb · llebe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "late" and "lebe" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "late" is an adjective and "lebe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "late" or "lebe"?
"lebe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,905 in our German list, against #14,348 for "late". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "late" and "lebe". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lebe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,929,034 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "late" and "lebe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "late 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