leftvslegtWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#18,967
“left” frequency rank
#1,604
“legt” frequency rank
20571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature left legt
Definition links 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs legen

Where the eye mixes left and legt

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

4 ch
left
4 ch
legt

Visual trap between left and legt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: left is [lɛft] while legt is [leːkt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - f in “left” becomes g in “legt”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

left is recorded at frequency rank #18,967, classified as anadv, pronounced [lɛft]. 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 20571, this pair ranks #1,896,164 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of left vs legt

Shared letters: elt. Private to "left": f. Private to "legt": g.

"left" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "legt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leftelft · lefft · leftt · letf · lfet · lleft
  • legtelgt · leggt · legtt · letg · lget · llegt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "left" and "legt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "left" is an adverb and "legt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "left" vs "legt" - which ranks higher?
"legt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,604 in our German list, against #18,967 for "left". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "left" 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 #1,896,164 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "left" and "legt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs left". 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 #1,896,164 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