liegvsliestWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lieg” and “liest” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,786
“lieg” frequency rank
#2,307
“liest” frequency rank
37093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lieg liest
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs liegen 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lesen

Where the eye mixes lieg and liest

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lieg
5 ch
liest

Visual trap between lieg and liest

A purely visual mix-up. lieg ([liːk]) and liest ([liːst]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lieg is recorded at frequency rank #34,786, classified as averb, pronounced [liːk]. liest is at rank #2,307, tagged as averb, pronounced [liːst].

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 37093, this pair ranks #1,598,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lieg vs liest

Shared letters: eil. Private to "lieg": g. Private to "liest": st.

"lieg" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "liest" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liegileg · leig · liegg · lige · llieg
  • liestilest · leist · liesst · liestt · liets · lliest

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lieg" and "liest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([liːk] versus [liːst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lieg" vs "liest" - which ranks higher?
"liest" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,307 in our German list, against #34,786 for "lieg". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lieg" and "liest" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lieg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "liest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,598,984 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lieg" and "liest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs lieg". 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 #1,598,984 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