LieferantvsliefernWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#23,606
“Lieferant” frequency rank
#2,455
“liefern” frequency rank
26061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lieferant liefern
Definition Organisation, die eine Ware für jemanden besorgt oder herstellt und gegebenenfalls auch ausliefern lässt Ware zum Käufer transportieren

Where the eye mixes Lieferant and liefern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
Lieferant
7 ch
liefern

Look-alike desk: Lieferant vs liefern

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lieferant is [ˌliːfəˈʁant] while liefern is [ˈliːfɐn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 26061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lieferant is recorded at frequency rank #23,606, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˌliːfəˈʁant]. liefern is at rank #2,455, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈliːfɐn].

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 26061, this pair ranks #1,823,779 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lieferant vs liefern

Shared letters: efilnr. Private to "Lieferant": at. Private to "liefern": -.

"Lieferant" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCVCC  ·  "liefern" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lieferantileferant · leiferant · lieefrant · liefearnt · lieferannt · lieferantt · lieferatn · liefernat
  • liefernilefern · leifern · lieefrn · liefenr · liefernn · lieferrn · lieffern · liefren

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Lieferant" and "liefern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lieferant" is a noun and "liefern" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Lieferant" or "liefern"?
"liefern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,455 in our German list, against #23,606 for "Lieferant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lieferant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "liefern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,823,779 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lieferant" and "liefern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Läufern vs liefern". 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 #1,823,779 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