liegvslikenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,786
“lieg” frequency rank
#39,513
“liken” frequency rank
74299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lieg liken
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs liegen etwas nach seinem Geschmack finden, Wohlgefallen an etwas finden; jemanden leiden mögen

Where the eye mixes lieg and liken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lieg runs 4 letters (CVVC) against liken's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lieg
5 ch
liken

Look-alike desk: lieg vs liken

A purely visual mix-up. lieg ([liːk]) and liken ([ˈlaɪ̯kn̩]) 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 74299, 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]. liken is at rank #39,513, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯kn̩].

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 74299, this pair ranks #337,105 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lieg vs liken

Shared letters: eil. Private to "lieg": g. Private to "liken": kn.

"lieg" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "liken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lieg ← ileg · leig · liegg · lige · llieg
  • liken ← ilken · liekn · likenn · likken · lkien · lliken

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lieg" and "liken" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([liːk] versus [ˈlaɪ̯kn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lieg" or "liken"?
"lieg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,786 in our German list, against #39,513 for "liken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lieg" and "liken" 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 "liken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,105 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lieg" and "liken" 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 #337,105 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