LattenvslegtenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#41,309
“Latten” frequency rank
#8,746
“legten” frequency rank
50055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Latten legten
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Latte 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs legen

Where the eye mixes Latten and legten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Latten and legten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Latten
6 ch
legten

Look-alike desk: Latten vs legten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Latten is [ˈlatn̩] while legten is [ˈleːktn̩]. 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 50055, 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]. legten is at rank #8,746, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈleːktn̩].

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 50055, this pair ranks #1,188,317 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Latten vs legten

Shared letters: elnt. Private to "Latten": a. Private to "legten": g.

"Latten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "legten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lattenlattenn · lattne · llatten · ltaten
  • legtenelgten · legetn · leggten · legtenn · legtne · legtten · letgen · lgeten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Latten" for "legten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Latten" is a noun and "legten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Latten" or "legten"?
"legten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,746 in our German list, against #41,309 for "Latten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Latten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "legten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,188,317 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Latten" and "legten" 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 #1,188,317 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