lirevsListeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,882
“lire” frequency rank
#957
“Liste” frequency rank
39839
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lire Liste
Definition Schriftzeichen, Worte und Texte wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und verstehen ein schriftliches Verzeichnis, in dem mehrere Punkte in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge aufgeführt sind

Where the eye mixes lire and Liste

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

4 ch
lire
5 ch
Liste

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lire is [liʁ] while Liste is [ˈlɪstə]. 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 39839, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lire is recorded at frequency rank #38,882, classified as averb, pronounced [liʁ]. Liste is at rank #957, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɪstə].

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 39839, this pair ranks #1,525,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lire vs Liste

Shared letters: eil. Private to "lire": r. Private to "Liste": st.

"lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Liste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lireilre · lier · lirre · llire · lrie
  • Listeilste · liset · lisste · listte · litse · lliste · lsite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lire" and "Liste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lire" is a verb and "Liste" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lire" or "Liste"?
"Liste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #957 in our German list, against #38,882 for "lire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "lire" and "Liste". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Liste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,525,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lire" and "Liste" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list