liehvslireWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,953
“lieh” frequency rank
#38,882
“lire” frequency rank
65835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lieh lire
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs leihen Schriftzeichen, Worte und Texte wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und verstehen

Where the eye mixes lieh and lire

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

4 ch
lieh
4 ch
lire

Visual trap between lieh and lire

A purely visual mix-up. lieh ([liː]) and lire ([liʁ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lieh is recorded at frequency rank #26,953, classified as averb, pronounced [liː]. lire is at rank #38,882, tagged as averb, pronounced [liʁ].

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 65835, this pair ranks #593,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lieh vs lire

Shared letters: eil. Private to "lieh": h. Private to "lire": r.

"lieh" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liehileh · liehh · lihe · llieh
  • lireilre · lier · lirre · llire · lrie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lieh" and "lire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([liː] versus [liʁ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lieh" or "lire"?
"lieh" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,953 in our German list, against #38,882 for "lire". 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 "lieh" and "lire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lieh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #593,387 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lieh" and "lire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs lire". 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 #593,387 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