LetternvsletzenConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#35,889
“Lettern” frequency rank
#20,655
“letzen” frequency rank
56544
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lettern letzen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Letter sich erquicken

Where the eye mixes Lettern and letzen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Lettern
6 ch
letzen

Look-alike desk: Lettern vs letzen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lettern is [ˈlɛtɐn] while letzen is [ˈlɛt͡sn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56544, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lettern is recorded at frequency rank #35,889, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛtɐn]. 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 56544, this pair ranks #936,102 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lettern vs letzen

Shared letters: elnt. Private to "Lettern": r. Private to "letzen": z.

"Lettern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "letzen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Letternletetrn · lettenr · letternn · letterrn · lettren · llettern · ltetern
  • letzeneltzen · letezn · letzenn · letzne · letzzen · lezten · lletzen · ltezen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lettern" and "letzen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lettern" is a noun and "letzen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Lettern" or "letzen" show up more?
"letzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,655 in our German list, against #35,889 for "Lettern". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lettern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letzen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #936,102 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lettern" and "letzen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs Lettern". 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 #936,102 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