leeremvsleerenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leerem is a adjective, leeren is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leerem” is an adjective and “leeren” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,043
“leerem” frequency rank
#5,198
“leeren” frequency rank
49241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leerem leeren
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs leer den Inhalt verbrauchen oder entfernen

Where the eye mixes leerem and leeren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. leerem and leeren follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
leerem
6 ch
leeren

Visual trap between leerem and leeren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leerem is [ˈleːʁəm] while leeren is [ˈleːʁən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “leerem” becomes n in “leeren”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leerem is recorded at frequency rank #44,043, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈleːʁəm]. leeren is at rank #5,198, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈleːʁən].

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 49241, this pair ranks #1,218,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leerem vs leeren

Shared letters: elr. Private to "leerem": m. Private to "leeren": n.

"leerem" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "leeren" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leerem ← elerem · leeerm · leeremm · leerme · leerrem · lereem · lerem · lleerem
  • leeren ← eleren · leeern · leerenn · leerne · leerren · lereen · leren · lleeren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leerem" for "leeren" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leerem" is an adjective and "leeren" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leerem" vs "leeren" - which ranks higher?
"leeren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,198 in our German list, against #44,043 for "leerem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leerem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leeren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,218,738 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leerem" and "leeren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leerem vs leeres". 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 #1,218,738 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