lecktevsLemkeTell them apart

Quick tell: leckte is a verb, Lemke is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leckte” is a verb and “Lemke” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,504
“leckte” frequency rank
#35,888
“Lemke” frequency rank
75392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leckte Lemke
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs lecken deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname

Letter map: leckte vs Lemke

Shared letters muted; letters that set leckte and Lemke apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
leckte
5 ch
Lemke

Role in the sentence - leckte and Lemke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leckte is averb and Lemkeaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leckte is recorded at frequency rank #39,504, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlɛktə]. Lemke is at rank #35,888, tagged as aname, 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 75392, this pair ranks #309,142 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leckte vs Lemke

Shared letters: ekl. Private to "leckte": ct. Private to "Lemke": m.

"leckte" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "Lemke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leckteelckte · lcekte · lecckte · lecket · leckkte · lecktte · lectke · lekcte
  • Lemkeelmke · lekme · lemek · lemkke · lemmke · llemke · lmeke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leckte" for "Lemke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leckte" is a verb and "Lemke" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leckte" or "Lemke"?
"Lemke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,888 in our German list, against #39,504 for "leckte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "leckte" vs "Lemke" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leckte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lemke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,142 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leckte" and "Lemke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lemke 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 #309,142 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