lauevsliveTell them apart

Which to use

“laue” and “live” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,872
“laue” frequency rank
#1,015
“live” frequency rank
39887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laue live
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs lau direkt ohne Veränderungen und Verzögerungen (an ein Publikum) wiedergebend

Where the eye mixes laue and live

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
laue
4 ch
live

Why the eye confuses laue with live

A purely visual mix-up. laue ([ˈlaʊ̯ə]) and live ([laɪ̯f]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laue is recorded at frequency rank #38,872, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯ə]. live is at rank #1,015, tagged as anadj, pronounced [laɪ̯f].

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 39887, this pair ranks #1,524,073 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laue vs live

Shared letters: el. Private to "laue": au. Private to "live": iv.

"laue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "live" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lauealue · laeu · llaue · luae
  • liveilve · liev · livve · llive · lvie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laue" for "live" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaʊ̯ə] versus [laɪ̯f]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laue" or "live"?
"live" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,015 in our German list, against #38,872 for "laue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "laue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "live" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,524,073 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laue" and "live" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs laue". 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 #1,524,073 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