leerevsLemkeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,286
“leere” frequency rank
#35,888
“Lemke” frequency rank
40174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leere Lemke
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs leer deutschsprachiger Nachname, Familienname

Letter map: leere vs Lemke

Shared letters muted; letters that set leere and Lemke apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. leere (CVVCV) and Lemke (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
leere
5 ch
Lemke

Grammar separator: leere vs Lemke

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leere is anadjective and Lemkeaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leere is recorded at frequency rank #4,286, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈleːʁə]. 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 40174, this pair ranks #1,515,990 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leere vs Lemke

Shared letters: el. Private to "leere": r. Private to "Lemke": km.

"leere" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Lemke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leereelere · leeer · leerre · leree · lleere
  • Lemkeelmke · lekme · lemek · lemkke · lemmke · llemke · lmeke

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leere" and "Lemke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leere" is an adjective and "Lemke" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "leere" or "Lemke" show up more?
"leere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,286 in our German list, against #35,888 for "Lemke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leere" 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 #1,515,990 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leere" 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 #1,515,990 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