Which to use
“laufen” is a verb and “lautem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #765
- “laufen” frequency rank
- #36,474
- “lautem” frequency rank
- 37239
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laufen | lautem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sich auf den Beinen oder Gliedmaßen fortbewegen; regional verschieden hat dieses Verb die Grundbedeutung „schnell gehen“ oder mit „mäßiger Geschwindigkeit gehen“, aber es wird überregional für mäßiges (bzw. langsames) Gehen in dem Ausdruck „das Kind läuft schon“ benutzt und wird in entsprechendem Kontext auch in solchen Regionen als mäßiges Gehen verstanden, wo üblicherweise „gehen“ statt „laufen“ benutzt wird (z.B. „nach Hause laufen“, süddeutsch und österreichisch „nach Hause gehen“) | Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs laut |
Where the eye mixes laufen and lautem
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. laufen and lautem follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between laufen and lautem
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laufen is [ˈlaʊ̯fn̩] while lautem is [ˈlaʊ̯təm]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laufen is recorded at frequency rank #765, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯fn̩]. lautem is at rank #36,474, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯təm].
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 37239, this pair ranks #1,595,328 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of laufen vs lautem
Shared letters: aelu. Private to "laufen": fn. Private to "lautem": mt.
"laufen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "lautem" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "laufen" for "lautem" ever safe?
Which is more common, "laufen" or "lautem"?
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 "laufen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lautem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,595,328 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laufen" and "lautem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Läuse vs lautem". 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 #1,595,328 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.