lehntvsLeineWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#6,557
“lehnt” frequency rank
#9,763
“Leine” frequency rank
16320
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lehnt Leine
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lehnen längere feste Schnur, an der etwas festgemacht wird oder mit der etwas festgemacht wird; dünnes Seil

Where the eye mixes lehnt and Leine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lehnt (CVCCC) and Leine (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
lehnt
5 ch
Leine

Visual trap between lehnt and Leine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lehnt is [leːnt] while Leine is [ˈlaɪ̯nə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lehnt is recorded at frequency rank #6,557, classified as averb, pronounced [leːnt]. Leine is at rank #9,763, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯nə].

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 16320, this pair ranks #1,936,819 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lehnt vs Leine

Shared letters: eln. Private to "lehnt": ht. Private to "Leine": i.

"lehnt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "Leine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lehntelhnt · lehhnt · lehnnt · lehntt · lehtn · lenht · lhent · llehnt
  • Leineeline · leien · leinne · lenie · liene · lleine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lehnt" and "Leine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lehnt" is a verb and "Leine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lehnt" vs "Leine" - which ranks higher?
"lehnt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,557 in our German list, against #9,763 for "Leine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lehnt" and "Leine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lehnt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Leine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,936,819 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lehnt" and "Leine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leibes vs Leine". 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 #1,936,819 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