LaunenvslautemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Launen is a noun, lautem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Launen” is a noun and “lautem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,499
“Launen” frequency rank
#36,474
“lautem” frequency rank
75973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Launen lautem
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Laune Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs laut

Where the eye mixes Launen and lautem

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

6 ch
Launen
6 ch
lautem

Why the eye confuses Launen with lautem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Launen is [ˈlaʊ̯nən] 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Launen is recorded at frequency rank #39,499, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯nən]. 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 75973, this pair ranks #294,837 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Launen vs lautem

Shared letters: aelu. Private to "Launen": n. Private to "lautem": mt.

"Launen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "lautem" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Launen ← alunen · lanuen · lauenn · launenn · launnen · llaunen · luanen
  • lautem ← alutem · latuem · lauetm · lautemm · lautme · lauttem · llautem · luatem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Launen" for "lautem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Launen" is a noun and "lautem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Launen" or "lautem" show up more?
"lautem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,474 in our German list, against #39,499 for "Launen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Launen" 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 #294,837 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Launen" and "lautem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Läufern vs Launen". 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 #294,837 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