Which to use
“les” is a pronoun and “lives” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #101
- “les” frequency rank
- #34,192
- “lives” frequency rank
- 34293
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | les | lives |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Segunda persona del singular del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de livañ o liviñ. |
Where the eye mixes les and lives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: les vs lives
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: les is [les] while lives is /ˈliː.vɛs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
les is recorded at frequency rank #101, classified as apron, pronounced [les]. lives is at rank #34,192, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈliː.vɛs/.
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 34293, this pair ranks #192,243 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of les vs lives
Shared letters: els. Private to "les": -. Private to "lives": iv.
"les" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lives" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lives ← ilves · libes · lievs · livess · livse · livves · llives · lvies
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "les" for "lives" ever safe?
Frequency check: "les" vs "lives" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "les" and "lives" 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 "lives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #192,243 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "les" and "lives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lives vs livre". 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 #192,243 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.