# L1 vs li

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### L1
*noun · frequency rank #24,220*
A mother tongue; someone's native language; own language.

### li
*noun · IPA /liː/ · frequency rank #4,685*
The Chinese mile, a traditional unit of distance equal to 1500 chis or 150 zhangs, now standardized as a half-kilometer (500 meters).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-09-03.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/l1-vs-li