leavevslegteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,643
“leave” frequency rank
#1,977
“legte” frequency rank
27620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leave legte
Definition von einem Ort weggehen; verlassen 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs legen

Where the eye mixes leave and legte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
leave
5 ch
legte

Visual trap between leave and legte

A purely visual mix-up. leave ([liːv]) and legte ([ˈleːktə]) 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 27620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leave is recorded at frequency rank #25,643, classified as averb, pronounced [liːv]. legte is at rank #1,977, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈleːktə].

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 27620, this pair ranks #1,798,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leave vs legte

Shared letters: el. Private to "leave": av. Private to "legte": gt.

"leave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "legte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leaveelave · laeve · leaev · leavve · levae · lleave
  • legteelgte · leget · leggte · legtte · letge · lgete · llegte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leave" and "legte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([liːv] versus [ˈleːktə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "leave" vs "legte" - which ranks higher?
"legte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,977 in our German list, against #25,643 for "leave". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "legte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,798,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leave" and "legte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs leave". 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 #1,798,784 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