lavslbWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: la is a article, lb is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“la” is an article and “lb” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2
“la” frequency rank
#22,921
“lb” frequency rank
22923
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature la lb
Definition Féminin singulier de le. Détermine un groupe nominal féminin singulier. Symbole de la livre (pound), unité de mesure de masse anglo-saxonne. Cette livre est ordinairement dans le système avoir-du-poids ; il y a aussi une livre apothicaire (apothecary pound ou troy pound) — les symboles respectifs sont lb av et lb t ou lb Tr. La livre française, elle, avait pour symbole lp.

Letter map: la vs lb

Shared letters muted; letters that set la and lb apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
la
2 ch
lb

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: la is anarticle and lbasymbol. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “la” becomes b in “lb”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

la is recorded at frequency rank #2, classified as anarticle, pronounced \la\. lb is at rank #22,921, tagged as asymbol.

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 22923, this pair ranks #355,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of la vs lb

Shared letters: l. Private to "la": a. Private to "lb": b.

"la" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "lb" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "la" and "lb" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "la" is an article and "lb" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "la" or "lb"?
"la" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2 in our French list, against #22,921 for "lb". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list