lernevsLesbeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,215
“lerne” frequency rank
#39,511
“Lesbe” frequency rank
45726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lerne Lesbe
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lernen Frau, die homosexuelle Neigungen besitzt, lesbisch ist

Where the eye mixes lerne and Lesbe

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

5 ch
lerne
5 ch
Lesbe

Visual trap between lerne and Lesbe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lerne is [ˈlɛʁnə] while Lesbe is [ˈlɛsbə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lerne is recorded at frequency rank #6,215, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlɛʁnə]. Lesbe is at rank #39,511, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛsbə].

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 45726, this pair ranks #1,343,265 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lerne vs Lesbe

Shared letters: el. Private to "lerne": nr. Private to "Lesbe": bs.

"lerne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Lesbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lerne ← elrne · lenre · lerrne · llerne · lrene
  • Lesbe ← elsbe · lebse · lesbbe · leseb · lessbe · llesbe · lsebe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lerne" for "Lesbe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lerne" is a verb and "Lesbe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lerne" vs "Lesbe" - which ranks higher?
"lerne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,215 in our German list, against #39,511 for "Lesbe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lerne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lesbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,343,265 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lerne" and "Lesbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Leibes vs Lesbe". 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 #1,343,265 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