Which to use
“lace” is a verb and “lay” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,860
- “lace” frequency rank
- #27,500
- “lay” frequency rank
- 69360
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lace | lay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de lacer. | Variante de lé. |
Letter map: lace vs lay
Shared letters muted; letters that set lace and lay apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: lace vs lay
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lace is averb and layanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lace is recorded at frequency rank #41,860, classified as averb, pronounced \las\. lay is at rank #27,500, tagged as anadj.
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 69360, this pair ranks #55,424 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lace vs lay
Shared letters: al. Private to "lace": ce. Private to "lay": y.
"lace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lace ← lacce · lcae · llace
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lace" for "lay" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "lace" or "lay" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "lace" vs "lay" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "lace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #55,424 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lace" and "lay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lace vs lago". 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 #55,424 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.