legervsLehenConfusable pair

Quick tell: leger is a adjective, Lehen is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#46,108
“leger” frequency rank
#20,321
“Lehen” frequency rank
66429
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leger Lehen
Definition leicht, bequem (meist in Zusammenhang mit Kleidung) etwas Geliehenes (auch feminin)

Where the eye mixes leger and Lehen

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

5 ch
leger
5 ch
Lehen

Look-alike desk: leger vs Lehen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leger is [leˈʒɛːɐ̯] while Lehen is [ˈleːən]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66429, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leger is recorded at frequency rank #46,108, classified as anadj, pronounced [leˈʒɛːɐ̯]. Lehen is at rank #20,321, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈleːən].

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 66429, this pair ranks #573,568 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leger vs Lehen

Shared letters: el. Private to "leger": gr. Private to "Lehen": hn.

"leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Lehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leger ← elger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
  • Lehen ← elhen · leehn · lehhen · lheen · llehen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leger" and "Lehen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leger" is an adjective and "Lehen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leger" or "Lehen"?
"Lehen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,321 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lehen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #573,568 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leger" and "Lehen" 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

Confusion rank #573,568 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