leerevsLesersConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,286
“leere” frequency rank
#47,561
“Lesers” frequency rank
51847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leere Lesers
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs leer Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Leser

Where the eye mixes leere and Lesers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. leere runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against Lesers's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
leere
6 ch
Lesers

Visual trap between leere and Lesers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leere is [ˈleːʁə] while Lesers is [ˈleːzɐs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51847, 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]. Lesers is at rank #47,561, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈleːzɐs].

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 51847, this pair ranks #1,119,729 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leere vs Lesers

Shared letters: elr. Private to "leere": -. Private to "Lesers": s.

"leere" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Lesers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leere ← elere · leeer · leerre · leree · lleere
  • Lesers ← elsers · leesrs · leserrs · leserss · lesesr · lesres · lessers · llesers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leere" for "Lesers" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leere" is an adjective and "Lesers" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "leere" or "Lesers" show up more?
"leere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,286 in our German list, against #47,561 for "Lesers". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lesers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,119,729 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leere" and "Lesers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lasern vs Lesers". 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 #1,119,729 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