likesvslineTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#16,771
“likes” frequency rank
#5,511
“line” frequency rank
22282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature likes line
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs like Schnur, Faden: lange, relativ dünne Textilie

Letter map: likes vs line

Shared letters muted; letters that set likes and line apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
likes
4 ch
line

Part-of-speech tell for likes / line

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: likes is averb and lineanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

likes is recorded at frequency rank #16,771, classified as averb, pronounced […]. line is at rank #5,511, tagged as anoun, pronounced [laɪn].

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 22282, this pair ranks #1,876,080 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of likes vs line

Shared letters: eil. Private to "likes": ks. Private to "line": n.

"likes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "line" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • likesilkes · lieks · likess · likkes · likse · lkies · llikes
  • lineilne · lien · linne · lline · lnie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "likes" and "line" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "likes" is a verb and "line" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "likes" or "line" show up more?
"line" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,511 in our German list, against #16,771 for "likes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "likes" vs "line" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "likes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "line" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,876,080 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "likes" and "line" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "likes vs puzzles". 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 #1,876,080 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