LattevslegteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#9,761
“Latte” frequency rank
#1,977
“legte” frequency rank
11738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Latte legte
Definition langes, vierkantiges Holz, dünner als ein Balken, dicker als eine Leiste und schmaler als ein Brett 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs legen

Where the eye mixes Latte and legte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Latte
5 ch
legte

Visual trap between Latte and legte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Latte is [ˈlatə] while legte is [ˈleːktə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Latte is recorded at frequency rank #9,761, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlatə]. legte is at rank #1,977, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈleːktə].

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 11738, this pair ranks #1,968,195 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Latte vs legte

Shared letters: elt. Private to "Latte": a. Private to "legte": g.

"Latte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "legte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lattelatet · llatte · ltate
  • legteelgte · leget · leggte · legtte · letge · lgete · llegte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Latte" and "legte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Latte" is a noun and "legte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Latte" or "legte"?
"legte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,977 in our German list, against #9,761 for "Latte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Latte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "legte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,968,195 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Latte" and "legte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs Latte". 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 #1,968,195 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