lacvsloiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lac” and “loi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,775
“lac” frequency rank
#300
“loi” frequency rank
2075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lac loi
Definition Grande étendue d’eau complètement entourée de terres, généralement d’eau douce. Règle, obligations écrites, prescrites ou tacites, auxquelles les personnes se doivent de se conformer.

Where the eye mixes lac and loi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
lac
3 ch
loi

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. lac (\lak\) and loi (\lwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lac is recorded at frequency rank #1,775, classified as anoun, pronounced \lak\. loi is at rank #300, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lwa\.

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 2075, this pair ranks #436,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lac vs loi

Shared letters: l. Private to "lac": ac. Private to "loi": io.

"lac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "loi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lac" and "loi" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lak\ versus \lwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lac" or "loi"?
"loi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #300 in our French list, against #1,775 for "lac". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lac" and "loi". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lac" and "loi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lac vs lep". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list