letztemvsLetzterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: letztem is a adjective, Letzter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,291
“letztem” frequency rank
#1,702
“Letzter” frequency rank
20993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letztem Letzter
Definition Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs letzte in einer zeitlichen, räumlichen oder rangmäßigen Abfolge am Ende Stehender

Where the eye mixes letztem and Letzter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. letztem and Letzter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
letztem
7 ch
Letzter

Look-alike desk: letztem vs Letzter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: letztem is [ˈlɛt͡stəm] while Letzter is [ˈlɛt͡stɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “letztem” becomes r in “Letzter”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letztem is recorded at frequency rank #19,291, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stəm]. Letzter is at rank #1,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stɐ].

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 20993, this pair ranks #1,891,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of letztem vs Letzter

Shared letters: eltz. Private to "letztem": m. Private to "Letzter": r.

"letztem" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "Letzter" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letztem ← eltztem · lettzem · lettztem · letzetm · letztemm · letztme · letzttem · letzztem
  • Letzter ← eltzter · lettzer · lettzter · letzetr · letzterr · letztre · letztter · letzzter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "letztem" for "Letzter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "letztem" is an adjective and "Letzter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "letztem" vs "Letzter" - which ranks higher?
"Letzter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,702 in our German list, against #19,291 for "letztem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "letztem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Letzter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,891,389 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letztem" and "Letzter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs letztem". 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 #1,891,389 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