LuftvslügtTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#818
“Luft” frequency rank
#9,408
“lügt” frequency rank
10226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Luft lügt
Definition überwiegend aus Stickstoff und Sauerstoff bestehendes Gasgemisch, das Lebewesen zum Atmen benötigen 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lügen

Where the eye mixes Luft and lügt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Luft
4 ch
lügt

Visual trap between Luft and lügt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Luft is [lʊft] while lügt is [lyːkt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Luft is recorded at frequency rank #818, classified as anoun, pronounced [lʊft]. lügt is at rank #9,408, tagged as averb, pronounced [lyːkt].

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 10226, this pair ranks #1,976,167 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Luft vs lügt

Shared letters: lt. Private to "Luft": fu. Private to "lügt": .

"Luft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lügt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Luftlfut · lluft · lufft · luftt · lutf · ulft

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Luft" and "lügt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Luft" is a noun and "lügt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Luft" or "lügt"?
"Luft" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #818 in our German list, against #9,408 for "lügt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Luft" and "lügt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Luft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lügt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,976,167 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Luft" and "lügt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lügt vs lupo". 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 #1,976,167 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