legevsLügeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#6,322
“lege” frequency rank
#4,372
“Lüge” frequency rank
10694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lege Lüge
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs legen falsche Aussage, mit der andere bewusst getäuscht werden sollen

Where the eye mixes lege and Lüge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lege and Lüge follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lege
4 ch
Lüge

Why the eye confuses lege with Lüge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lege is [ˈleːɡə] while Lüge is [ˈlyːɡə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “lege” becomes ü in “Lüge”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10694, 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]. Lüge is at rank #4,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlyːɡə].

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 10694, this pair ranks #1,973,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lege vs Lüge

Shared letters: egl. Private to "lege": -. Private to "Lüge": ü.

"lege" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Lüge" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legeelge · leeg · legge · lgee · llege

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lege" for "Lüge" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lege" is a verb and "Lüge" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lege" or "Lüge"?
"Lüge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,372 in our German list, against #6,322 for "lege". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lege" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lüge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,973,815 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lege" and "Lüge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs lege". 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 #1,973,815 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