lagovslapsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#49,759
“lago” frequency rank
#18,786
“laps” frequency rank
68545
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lago laps
Definition Là. Période de temps.

Where the eye mixes lago and laps

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

4 ch
lago
4 ch
laps

Visual trap between lago and laps

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lago is \la.ɡo\ while laps is \laps\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68545, 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\. laps is at rank #18,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced \laps\.

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 68545, this pair ranks #58,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lago vs laps

Shared letters: al. Private to "lago": go. Private to "laps": ps.

"lago" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "laps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lagoalgo · laggo · laog · lgao · llago
  • lapsalps · lapps · lapss · lasp · llaps · lpas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lago" and "laps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lago" is an adverb and "laps" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lago" vs "laps" - which ranks higher?
"laps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,786 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.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lago" and "laps" 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 #58,743 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