ledovslesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ledo is a adjective, les is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ledo” is an adjective and “les” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,033
“ledo” frequency rank
#101
“les” frequency rank
46134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ledo les
Definition Alegre, contento. Forma del dativo de ellos. Dativo del pronombre personal de tercera persona en género masculino o femenino y número plural. No admite preposición y se puede usar como sufijo: LES di; daLES. Es grave incorrección emplear en este caso para el género masculino la forma los, propia del acusativo, y en femenino tampoco debe emplearse la forma las, aunque lo hayan hecho escritores de nota.

Where the eye mixes ledo and les

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

4 ch
ledo
3 ch
les

Why the eye confuses ledo with les

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ledo is [ˈleð̞ʊ] while les is [les]. 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 (adjective vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ledo is recorded at frequency rank #46,033, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈleð̞ʊ]. les is at rank #101, tagged as apron, pronounced [les].

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 46134, this pair ranks #127,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ledo vs les

Shared letters: el. Private to "ledo": do. Private to "les": s.

"ledo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ledoeldo · ldeo · leddo · leod · lledo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ledo" and "les" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ledo" is an adjective and "les" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ledo" or "les"?
"les" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #101 in our Spanish list, against #46,033 for "ledo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ledo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "les" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ledo" and "les" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ledo vs lens". 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 #127,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list