LebenvslettenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#132
“Leben” frequency rank
#46,806
“letten” frequency rank
46938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Leben letten
Definition der Inbegriff alles Organischen, basierend auf Stoffwechsel, Vermehrung und Wachstum Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs let

Letter map: Leben vs letten

Shared letters muted; letters that set Leben and letten apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
Leben
6 ch
letten

Grammar separator: Leben vs letten

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Leben is anoun and lettenaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Leben is recorded at frequency rank #132, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈleːbn̩]. letten is at rank #46,806, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 46938, this pair ranks #1,301,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Leben vs letten

Shared letters: eln. Private to "Leben": b. Private to "letten": t.

"Leben" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "letten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lebenlbeen · lebben · lebenn · lebne · leebn · lleben
  • letteneltten · leten · letetn · lettenn · lettne · lletten · lteten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Leben" for "letten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Leben" is a noun and "letten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Leben" or "letten"?
"Leben" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #132 in our German list, against #46,806 for "letten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Leben" and "letten".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Leben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,301,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Leben" and "letten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs puzzles". 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 #1,301,815 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