lettervslettersWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#29,681
“letter” frequency rank
#41,320
“letters” frequency rank
71001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letter letters
Definition Brief 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs letter

Letter map: letter vs letters

Shared letters muted; letters that set letter and letters apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. letter runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against letters's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
letter
7 ch
letters

Role in the sentence - letter and letters

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: letter is anoun and lettersaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “letter” sits inside “letters”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letter is recorded at frequency rank #29,681, classified as anoun, pronounced [letə(r)]. letters is at rank #41,320, 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 71001, this pair ranks #429,552 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of letter vs letters

Shared letters: elrt. Private to "letter": -. Private to "letters": s.

"letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "letters" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letter ← eltter · leter · letetr · letterr · lettre · lletter · lteter
  • letters ← eltters · leters · letetrs · letterrs · letterss · lettesr · lettres · lletters

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "letter" and "letters" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "letter" is a noun and "letters" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "letter" vs "letters" - which ranks higher?
"letter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,681 in our German list, against #41,320 for "letters". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "letter" vs "letters" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "letter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letters" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,552 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letter" and "letters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letters 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 #429,552 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