legevslegerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lege is a verb, leger is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,322
“lege” frequency rank
#46,108
“leger” frequency rank
52430
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lege leger
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs legen leicht, bequem (meist in Zusammenhang mit Kleidung)

Where the eye mixes lege and leger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lege
5 ch
leger

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lege is [ˈleːɡə] while leger is [leˈʒɛːɐ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lege” sits inside “leger”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lege is recorded at frequency rank #6,322, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈleːɡə]. leger is at rank #46,108, tagged as anadj, pronounced [leˈʒɛːɐ̯].

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 52430, this pair ranks #1,097,311 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lege vs leger

Shared letters: egl. Private to "lege": -. Private to "leger": r.

"lege" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legeelge · leeg · legge · lgee · llege
  • legerelger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lege" and "leger" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lege" is a verb and "leger" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lege" or "leger"?
"lege" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,322 in our German list, against #46,108 for "leger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lege" and "leger". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lege" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,097,311 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lege" and "leger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs leger". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list