lettenvsletterConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#46,806
“letten” frequency rank
#29,681
“letter” frequency rank
76487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letten letter
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs let Brief

Letter map: letten vs letter

Shared letters muted; letters that set letten and letter apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. letten and letter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
letten
6 ch
letter

Grammar separator: letten vs letter

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: letten is averb and letteranoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - n in “letten” becomes r in “letter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letten is recorded at frequency rank #46,806, classified as averb, pronounced […]. letter is at rank #29,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced [letə(r)].

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 76487, this pair ranks #282,750 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of letten vs letter

Shared letters: elt. Private to "letten": n. Private to "letter": r.

"letten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letten ← eltten · leten · letetn · lettenn · lettne · lletten · lteten
  • letter ← eltter · leter · letetr · letterr · lettre · lletter · lteter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "letten" for "letter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "letten" is a verb and "letter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "letten" vs "letter" - which ranks higher?
"letter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,681 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.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "letten" and "letter".

  • Full dictionary entry for "letten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,750 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letten" and "letter" 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

Confusion rank #282,750 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