lettenvslittenConfusable pair

Which to use

“letten” and “litten” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,806
“letten” frequency rank
#23,221
“litten” frequency rank
70027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letten litten
Definition Partizip Perfekt (past participle) des Verbs let 1. Person Plural Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs leiden

Letter map: letten vs litten

Shared letters muted; letters that set letten and litten apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. letten and litten 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
litten

Corpus notes: letten and litten

letten and litten are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - e in “letten” becomes i in “litten”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letten is recorded at frequency rank #46,806, classified as averb, pronounced […]. litten is at rank #23,221, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlɪtn̩].

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 70027, this pair ranks #458,721 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of letten vs litten

Shared letters: elnt. Private to "letten": -. Private to "litten": i.

"letten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "litten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letten ← eltten · leten · letetn · lettenn · lettne · lletten · lteten
  • litten ← iltten · liten · litetn · littenn · littne · llitten · ltiten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "letten" and "litten" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - e in “letten” becomes i in “litten”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "letten" or "litten" show up more?
"litten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,221 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "letten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "litten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #458,721 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letten" and "litten" 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 #458,721 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