LetternvsletztereConfusable pair

Quick tell: Lettern is a noun, letztere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#35,889
“Lettern” frequency rank
#6,216
“letztere” frequency rank
42105
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lettern letztere
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Letter von zweien oder mehreren zuletzt genannt

Where the eye mixes Lettern and letztere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Lettern runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against letztere's 8 (CVCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Lettern
8 ch
letztere

Why the eye confuses Lettern with letztere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lettern is [ˈlɛtɐn] while letztere is [ˈlɛt͡stəʁə]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42105, 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]. letztere is at rank #6,216, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stəʁə].

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 42105, this pair ranks #1,459,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lettern vs letztere

Shared letters: elrt. Private to "Lettern": n. Private to "letztere": z.

"Lettern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "letztere" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lettern ← letetrn · lettenr · letternn · letterrn · lettren · llettern · ltetern
  • letztere ← eltztere · lettzere · lettztere · letzetre · letzteer · letzterre · letztree · letzttere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lettern" for "letztere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lettern" is a noun and "letztere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Lettern" or "letztere" show up more?
"letztere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,216 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lettern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letztere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,459,418 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lettern" and "letztere" 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 #1,459,418 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