lettervsletzenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#29,681
“letter” frequency rank
#20,655
“letzen” frequency rank
50336
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letter letzen
Definition Brief sich erquicken

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set letter and letzen apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
letter
6 ch
letzen

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: letter is [letə(r)] while letzen is [ˈlɛt͡sn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50336, 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)]. letzen is at rank #20,655, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡sn̩].

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 50336, this pair ranks #1,177,605 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of letter vs letzen

Shared letters: elt. Private to "letter": r. Private to "letzen": nz.

"letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "letzen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lettereltter · leter · letetr · letterr · lettre · lletter · lteter
  • letzeneltzen · letezn · letzenn · letzne · letzzen · lezten · lletzen · ltezen

Frequency comparison

letter#29,681
letzen#20,655

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "letter" and "letzen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "letter" is a noun and "letzen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "letter" or "letzen"?
"letzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,655 in our German list, against #29,681 for "letter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering letter vs letzen

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “letter”; for a verb, it's “letzen”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “letter” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list