LattenvslautetenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#41,309
“Latten” frequency rank
#44,765
“lauteten” frequency rank
86074
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Latten lauteten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Latte 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs lauten

Where the eye mixes Latten and lauteten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Latten runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against lauteten's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Latten
8 ch
lauteten

Look-alike desk: Latten vs lauteten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Latten is [ˈlatn̩] while lauteten is [ˈlaʊ̯tətn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Latten is recorded at frequency rank #41,309, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlatn̩]. lauteten is at rank #44,765, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯tətn̩].

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 86074, this pair ranks #99,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Latten vs lauteten

Shared letters: aelnt. Private to "Latten": -. Private to "lauteten": u.

"Latten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "lauteten" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lattenlattenn · lattne · llatten · ltaten
  • lautetenaluteten · latueten · lauetten · lauteetn · lautetenn · lautetne · lautetten · lautteen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Latten" for "lauteten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Latten" is a noun and "lauteten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Latten" or "lauteten" show up more?
"Latten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,309 in our German list, against #44,765 for "lauteten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Latten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lauteten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Latten" and "lauteten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Laatzen vs Latten". 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 #99,018 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