liegvslivesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#34,786
“lieg” frequency rank
#30,669
“lives” frequency rank
65455
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lieg lives
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs liegen Plural des Substantivs life

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lieg and lives apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
lieg
5 ch
lives

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lieg is [liːk] while lives is [laɪvz]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65455, 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]. lives is at rank #30,669, tagged as anoun, pronounced [laɪvz].

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 65455, this pair ranks #606,330 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lieg vs lives

Shared letters: eil. Private to "lieg": g. Private to "lives": sv.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liegileg · leig · liegg · lige · llieg
  • livesilves · lievs · livess · livse · livves · llives · lvies

Frequency comparison

lieg#34,786
lives#30,669

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lieg" and "lives" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lieg" is a verb and "lives" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lieg" or "lives"?
"lives" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,669 in our German list, against #34,786 for "lieg". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering lieg vs lives

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “lieg”; for a noun, it's “lives”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lieg” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list