legervsLiederWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#46,108
“leger” frequency rank
#2,908
“Lieder” frequency rank
49016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leger Lieder
Definition leicht, bequem (meist in Zusammenhang mit Kleidung) Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Lied

Where the eye mixes leger and Lieder

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

5 ch
leger
6 ch
Lieder

Visual trap between leger and Lieder

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leger is [leˈʒɛːɐ̯] while Lieder is [ˈliːdɐ]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49016, 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]. Lieder is at rank #2,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈliːdɐ].

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 49016, this pair ranks #1,227,165 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leger vs Lieder

Shared letters: elr. Private to "leger": g. Private to "Lieder": di.

"leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Lieder" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legerelger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
  • Liederileder · lideer · liedder · liederr · liedre · lieedr · llieder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leger" for "Lieder" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leger" is an adjective and "Lieder" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leger" vs "Lieder" - which ranks higher?
"Lieder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,908 in our German list, against #46,108 for "leger". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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 "Lieder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,227,165 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leger" and "Lieder" 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 #1,227,165 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