LeesvslegtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,048
“Lees” frequency rank
#1,604
“legt” frequency rank
50652
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lees legt
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Lee 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs legen

Where the eye mixes Lees and legt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Lees (CVVC) and legt (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Lees
4 ch
legt

Why the eye confuses Lees with legt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lees is [leːs] while legt is [leːkt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lees is recorded at frequency rank #49,048, classified as anoun, pronounced [leːs]. legt is at rank #1,604, tagged as averb, pronounced [leːkt].

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 50652, this pair ranks #1,165,633 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lees vs legt

Shared letters: el. Private to "Lees": s. Private to "legt": gt.

"Lees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "legt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lees ← eles · leess · llees
  • legt ← elgt · leggt · legtt · letg · lget · llegt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Lees" and "legt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lees" is a noun and "legt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Lees" or "legt"?
"legt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,604 in our German list, against #49,048 for "Lees". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "legt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,165,633 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lees" and "legt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs Loses". 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 #1,165,633 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