LerchevslöscheWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Lerche is a noun, lösche is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lerche” is a noun and “lösche” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,560
“Lerche” frequency rank
#25,654
“lösche” frequency rank
73214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lerche lösche
Definition Singvogel mit erdfarbenem Gefieder und trillerndem Gesang der Familie kleiner, bodenbewohnender Vögel aus der Unterordnung der Sperlingsvögel 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs löschen

Where the eye mixes Lerche and lösche

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Lerche
6 ch
lösche

Look-alike desk: Lerche vs lösche

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lerche is [ˈlɛʁçə] while lösche is [ˈlœʃə]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lerche is recorded at frequency rank #47,560, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛʁçə]. lösche is at rank #25,654, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlœʃə].

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 73214, this pair ranks #366,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lerche vs lösche

Shared letters: cehl. Private to "Lerche": r. Private to "lösche": .

"Lerche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "lösche" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lercheelrche · lecrhe · lercche · lerceh · lerchhe · lerhce · lerrche · llerche

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Lerche" and "lösche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lerche" is a noun and "lösche" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Lerche" or "lösche" show up more?
"lösche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,654 in our German list, against #47,560 for "Lerche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lerche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lösche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lerche" and "lösche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lerche vs Lorch". 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 #366,571 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