LeesvsleiseConfusable pair

Quick tell: Lees is a noun, leise is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#49,048
“Lees” frequency rank
#2,906
“leise” frequency rank
51954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lees leise
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Lee kaum hörbar

Where the eye mixes Lees and leise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Lees
5 ch
leise

Look-alike desk: Lees vs leise

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lees is [leːs] while leise is [ˈlaɪ̯zə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51954, 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]. leise is at rank #2,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯zə].

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 51954, this pair ranks #1,115,591 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lees vs leise

Shared letters: els. Private to "Lees": -. Private to "leise": i.

"Lees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "leise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Leeseles · leess · llees
  • leiseleies · leisse · lesie · liese · lleise

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Lees" and "leise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lees" is a noun and "leise" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Lees" or "leise" show up more?
"leise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,906 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,115,591 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lees" and "leise" 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 #1,115,591 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