Which to use
“lais” and “laits” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- #36,466
- “laits” frequency rank
- 78328
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lais | laits |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. | Pluriel de lait. |
Same sound, different letters: lais vs laits
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. lais runs 4 letters (CVVC) against laits's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - lais and laits
This is the hard kind. lais and laits are pronounced identically (\lɛ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78328, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lais is recorded at frequency rank #41,862, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛ\. laits is at rank #36,466, 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 78328, this pair ranks #26,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lais vs laits
Shared letters: ails. Private to "lais": -. Private to "laits": t.
"lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "laits" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lais" and "laits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lais" vs "laits" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"lais" and "laits" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "lais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lais" and "laits" 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 #26,051 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.