lehnenvslettenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“lehnen” and “letten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,403
“lehnen” frequency rank
#46,806
“letten” frequency rank
56209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lehnen letten
Definition den Körper schräg stellen Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs let

Letter map: lehnen vs letten

Shared letters muted; letters that set lehnen and letten apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. lehnen and letten follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
lehnen
6 ch
letten

Spelling & dictionary notes on lehnen vs letten

lehnen and letten are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lehnen is recorded at frequency rank #9,403, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈleːnən]. letten is at rank #46,806, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 56209, this pair ranks #949,127 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lehnen vs letten

Shared letters: eln. Private to "lehnen": h. Private to "letten": t.

"lehnen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "letten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lehnen ← elhnen · lehenn · lehhnen · lehnenn · lehnne · lehnnen · lenhen · lhenen
  • letten ← eltten · leten · letetn · lettenn · lettne · lletten · lteten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lehnen" and "letten" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lehnen" vs "letten" - which ranks higher?
"lehnen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,403 in our German list, against #46,806 for "letten". 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 "lehnen" and "letten". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lehnen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #949,127 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lehnen" and "letten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs puzzles". 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 #949,127 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