leisenvslettenTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#20,323
“leisen” frequency rank
#46,806
“letten” frequency rank
67129
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leisen letten
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs leise Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs let

Letter map: leisen vs letten

Shared letters muted; letters that set leisen and letten apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. leisen (CVVCVC) and letten (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
leisen
6 ch
letten

Grammar separator: leisen vs letten

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leisen is anadjective and lettenaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leisen is recorded at frequency rank #20,323, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯zn̩]. 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 67129, this pair ranks #550,330 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leisen vs letten

Shared letters: eln. Private to "leisen": is. Private to "letten": t.

"leisen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "letten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leisen ← elisen · leiesn · leisenn · leisne · leissen · lesien · liesen · lleisen
  • letten ← eltten · leten · letetn · lettenn · lettne · lletten · lteten

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leisen" for "letten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leisen" is an adjective and "letten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "leisen" or "letten" show up more?
"leisen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,323 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.

Useful next steps

You've compared "leisen" and "letten". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leisen" 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 #550,330 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leisen" 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 #550,330 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