lesevslifeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,907
“lese” frequency rank
#2,842
“life” frequency rank
5749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lese life
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lesen Leben: die Eigenschaft lebendiger Wesen, die den Toten und den anorganischen Sachen fehlt

Where the eye mixes lese and life

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lese
4 ch
life

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lese is [ˈleːzə] while life is [laɪf]. 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 5749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lese is recorded at frequency rank #2,907, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈleːzə]. life is at rank #2,842, tagged as anoun, pronounced [laɪf].

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 5749, this pair ranks #1,993,850 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lese vs life

Shared letters: el. Private to "lese": s. Private to "life": fi.

"lese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "life" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leseelse · lesse · llese · lsee
  • lifeilfe · lfie · liffe · llife

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lese" and "life" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lese" is a verb and "life" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lese" or "life"?
"life" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,842 in our German list, against #2,907 for "lese". 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 "lese" and "life". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "life" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,993,850 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lese" and "life" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs lese". 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