leichtevslöschteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leichte is a adjective, löschte is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leichte” is an adjective and “löschte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,197
“leichte” frequency rank
#37,661
“löschte” frequency rank
40858
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leichte löschte
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs leicht 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs löschen

Where the eye mixes leichte and löschte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
leichte
7 ch
löschte

Look-alike desk: leichte vs löschte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leichte is [ˈlaɪ̯çtə] while löschte is [ˈlœʃtə]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leichte is recorded at frequency rank #3,197, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯çtə]. löschte is at rank #37,661, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlœʃtə].

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 40858, this pair ranks #1,496,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leichte vs löschte

Shared letters: cehlt. Private to "leichte": i. Private to "löschte": .

"leichte" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV  ·  "löschte" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leichteelichte · lecihte · leicchte · leichet · leichhte · leichtte · leicthe · leihcte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leichte" and "löschte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leichte" is an adjective and "löschte" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "leichte" or "löschte" show up more?
"leichte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,197 in our German list, against #37,661 for "löschte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leichte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "löschte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,496,275 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leichte" and "löschte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lauschte vs löschte". 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 #1,496,275 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