lagovslaveWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,759
“lago” frequency rank
#5,996
“lave” frequency rank
55755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lago lave
Definition Là. , Roche en fusion rejetée par un volcan en éruption.

Where the eye mixes lago and lave

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

4 ch
lago
4 ch
lave

Why the eye confuses lago with lave

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lago is \la.ɡo\ while lave is \lav\. 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 55755, 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\. lave is at rank #5,996, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lav\.

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 55755, this pair ranks #125,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lago vs lave

Shared letters: al. Private to "lago": go. Private to "lave": ev.

"lago" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lagoalgo · laggo · laog · lgao · llago
  • lavealve · laev · lavve · llave · lvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lago" for "lave" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lago" is an adverb and "lave" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lago" vs "lave" - which ranks higher?
"lave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,996 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lago" and "lave" 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 #125,429 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