Which to use
“lieben” is a verb and “liebes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,163
- “lieben” frequency rank
- #5,619
- “liebes” frequency rank
- 6782
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lieben | liebes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine innige, gefühlsmäßige Zuneigung für jemanden oder etwas empfinden | Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs lieb |
Where the eye mixes lieben and liebes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lieben and liebes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lieben with liebes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lieben is [ˈliːbn̩] while liebes is [ˈliːbəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “lieben” becomes s in “liebes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lieben is recorded at frequency rank #1,163, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈliːbn̩]. liebes is at rank #5,619, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈliːbəs].
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 6782, this pair ranks #1,990,461 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lieben vs liebes
Shared letters: beil. Private to "lieben": n. Private to "liebes": s.
"lieben" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "liebes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lieben" for "liebes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lieben" vs "liebes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lieben" and "liebes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lieben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "liebes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,990,461 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lieben" and "liebes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs liebes". 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 #1,990,461 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.