Which to use
“laide” is an adjective and “lais” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,520
- “laide” frequency rank
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- 60382
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laide | lais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de laid. | Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. |
Where the eye mixes laide and lais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. laide runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against lais's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: laide vs lais
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laide is \lɛd\ while lais is \lɛ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laide is recorded at frequency rank #18,520, classified as anadj, pronounced \lɛd\. lais is at rank #41,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛ\.
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 60382, this pair ranks #97,885 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laide vs lais
Shared letters: ail. Private to "laide": de. Private to "lais": s.
"laide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "laide" for "lais" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "laide" or "lais" show up more?
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 "laide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #97,885 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laide" and "lais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lais". 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 #97,885 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.