loosvsluisWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#29,226
“loos” frequency rank
#10,126
“luis” frequency rank
39352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loos luis
Definition Plural des Substantivs loo Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs lui

Letter map: loos vs luis

Shared letters muted; letters that set loos and luis apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
loos
4 ch
luis

Grammar separator: loos vs luis

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: loos is anoun and luisaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loos is recorded at frequency rank #29,226, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. luis is at rank #10,126, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈluis].

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 39352, this pair ranks #1,539,125 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of loos vs luis

Shared letters: ls. Private to "loos": o. Private to "luis": iu.

"loos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "luis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • looslloos · looss · loso · olos
  • luislius · lluis · luiss · lusi · ulis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loos" for "luis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loos" is a noun and "luis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "loos" or "luis" show up more?
"luis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,126 in our German list, against #29,226 for "loos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "loos" and "luis".

  • Full dictionary entry for "loos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,539,125 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loos" and "luis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loos 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 #1,539,125 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