Which to use
“les” is a pronoun and “lis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #101
- “les” frequency rank
- #20,413
- “lis” frequency rank
- 20514
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | les | lis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | (Iris) Planta de la familia de las irídeas, formada por tallos que miden generalmente entre cinco y seis decímetros de largo, con hojas ensiformes que tienen cerca de la mitad de esa longitud, y que terminan en flores de gran tamaño, con seis pétalos de vivos colores, generalmente morado, azul o blanco. |
Where the eye mixes les and lis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between les and lis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: les is [les] while lis is [ˈlis]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “les” becomes i in “lis”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
les is recorded at frequency rank #101, classified as apron, pronounced [les]. lis is at rank #20,413, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlis].
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 20514, this pair ranks #259,012 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of les vs lis
Shared letters: ls. Private to "les": e. Private to "lis": i.
"les" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "les" and "lis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "les" or "lis" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "les" and "lis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "les" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,012 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "les" and "lis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lies vs lis". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #259,012 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.