lagovslawWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#49,759
“lago” frequency rank
#12,186
“law” frequency rank
61945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lago law
Definition Là. Loi, règle.

Where the eye mixes lago and law

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

4 ch
lago
3 ch
law

Look-alike desk: lago vs law

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lago is \la.ɡo\ while law is \lɔ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61945, 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\. law is at rank #12,186, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔ\.

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 61945, this pair ranks #89,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lago vs law

Shared letters: al. Private to "lago": go. Private to "law": w.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lagoalgo · laggo · laog · lgao · llago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lago" for "law" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lago" is an adverb and "law" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lago" vs "law" - which ranks higher?
"law" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,186 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

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 "law" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lago" and "law" 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 #89,628 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