lagovslamTell them apart

Quick tell: lago is a adverb, lam is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lago” is an adverb and “lam” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,759
“lago” frequency rank
#25,713
“lam” frequency rank
75472
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lago lam
Definition Là. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe lemel/lemen/lemiñ.

Where the eye mixes lago and lam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lago
3 ch
lam

Look-alike desk: lago vs lam

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lago is \la.ɡo\ while lam is \ˈlãmː\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75472, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lago is recorded at frequency rank #49,759, classified as anadv, pronounced \la.ɡo\. lam is at rank #25,713, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈlãmː\.

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 75472, this pair ranks #33,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lago vs lam

Shared letters: al. Private to "lago": go. Private to "lam": m.

"lago" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lam" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lagoalgo · laggo · laog · lgao · llago

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lago" and "lam" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lago" is an adverb and "lam" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lago" vs "lam" - which ranks higher?
"lam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,713 in our French list, against #49,759 for "lago". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "lago" and "lam" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lago" and "lam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs longo". 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 #33,995 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list