Which to use
“Leid” is a noun and “leidet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,263
- “Leid” frequency rank
- #4,631
- “leidet” frequency rank
- 5894
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Leid | leidet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | starker Kummer, starker psychischer oder seelischer Schmerz | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs leiden |
Where the eye mixes Leid and leidet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Leid runs 4 letters (CVVC) against leidet's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses Leid with leidet
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Leid is [laɪ̯t] while leidet is [ˈlaɪ̯dət]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Leid” sits inside “leidet”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Leid is recorded at frequency rank #1,263, classified as anoun, pronounced [laɪ̯t]. leidet is at rank #4,631, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯dət].
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 5894, this pair ranks #1,993,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Leid vs leidet
Shared letters: deil. Private to "Leid": -. Private to "leidet": t.
"Leid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "leidet" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Leid" and "leidet" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "Leid" or "leidet" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Leid" and "leidet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Leid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leidet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,993,380 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Leid" and "leidet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leibes vs leidet". 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 #1,993,380 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.