LeinevsLeuteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,763
“Leine” frequency rank
#215
“Leute” frequency rank
9978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Leine Leute
Definition längere feste Schnur, an der etwas festgemacht wird oder mit der etwas festgemacht wird; dünnes Seil eine Gruppe von Personen, Menschen meist unbestimmter, aber auch bestimmter Anzahl

Where the eye mixes Leine and Leute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Leine and Leute follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Leine
5 ch
Leute

Visual trap between Leine and Leute

A purely visual mix-up. Leine ([ˈlaɪ̯nə]) and Leute ([ˈlɔɪ̯tə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Leine is recorded at frequency rank #9,763, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯nə]. Leute is at rank #215, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɔɪ̯tə].

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 9978, this pair ranks #1,977,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Leine vs Leute

Shared letters: el. Private to "Leine": in. Private to "Leute": tu.

"Leine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Leute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Leineeline · leien · leinne · lenie · liene · lleine
  • Leuteelute · letue · leuet · leutte · lleute · luete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Leine" for "Leute" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaɪ̯nə] versus [ˈlɔɪ̯tə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Leine" vs "Leute" - which ranks higher?
"Leute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #215 in our German list, against #9,763 for "Leine". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Leine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Leute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Leine" and "Leute" 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 #1,977,372 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