luivsLukeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lui is a pronoun, Luke is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lui” is a pronoun and “Luke” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,056
“lui” frequency rank
#9,945
“Luke” frequency rank
54001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lui Luke
Definition er eine klappbare Tür; eine verschließbare Öffnung

Where the eye mixes lui and Luke

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

3 ch
lui
4 ch
Luke

Visual trap between lui and Luke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lui is [lɥi] while Luke is [ˈluːkə]. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lui is recorded at frequency rank #44,056, classified as apron, pronounced [lɥi]. Luke is at rank #9,945, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈluːkə].

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 54001, this pair ranks #1,035,939 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lui vs Luke

Shared letters: lu. Private to "lui": i. Private to "Luke": ek.

"lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Luke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lukelkue · lluke · luek · lukke · ulke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lui" and "Luke" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lui" is a pronoun and "Luke" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "lui" or "Luke" show up more?
"Luke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,945 in our German list, against #44,056 for "lui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Luke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,035,939 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lui" and "Luke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lori vs lui". 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 #1,035,939 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