Which to use
“less” is an adverb and “lets” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,180
- “less” frequency rank
- #18,317
- “lets” frequency rank
- 48497
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | less | lets |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | weniger von etwas | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs let |
Letter map: less vs lets
Shared letters muted; letters that set less and lets apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for less / lets
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: less is anadverb and letsaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - s in “less” becomes t in “lets”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48497, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
less is recorded at frequency rank #30,180, classified as anadv, pronounced [lɛs]. lets is at rank #18,317, 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 48497, this pair ranks #1,246,438 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of less vs lets
Shared letters: els. Private to "less": -. Private to "lets": t.
"less" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lets" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "less" for "lets" ever safe?
Which is more common, "less" or "lets"?
What to do next
Pair "less" vs "lets" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "less" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,246,438 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "less" and "lets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "less vs Loses". 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 #1,246,438 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.