leitenvslettenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,101
“leiten” frequency rank
#46,806
“letten” frequency rank
51907
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leiten letten
Definition die Führung ausüben Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs let

Letter map: leiten vs letten

Shared letters muted; letters that set leiten and letten apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
leiten
6 ch
letten

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

leiten and letten are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - i in “leiten” becomes t in “letten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leiten is recorded at frequency rank #5,101, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯tn̩]. 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 51907, this pair ranks #1,117,454 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leiten vs letten

Shared letters: elnt. Private to "leiten": i. Private to "letten": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leitenleietn · leitenn · leitne · leitten · letien · lieten · lleiten
  • letteneltten · leten · letetn · lettenn · lettne · lletten · lteten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leiten" and "letten" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - i in “leiten” becomes t in “letten”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "leiten" or "letten"?
"leiten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,101 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leiten" 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 #1,117,454 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leiten" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list