laisvslarTell them apart

Quick tell: lais is a noun, lar is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#41,862
“lais” frequency rank
#48,637
“lar” frequency rank
90499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lais lar
Definition Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. Trop.

Letter map: lais vs lar

Shared letters muted; letters that set lais and lar apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. lais runs 4 letters (CVVC) against lar's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lais
3 ch
lar

Grammar separator: lais vs lar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lais is anoun and laranadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90499, 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\. lar is at rank #48,637, tagged as anadv.

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 90499, this pair ranks #4,724 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lais vs lar

Shared letters: al. Private to "lais": is. Private to "lar": r.

"lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lar" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lais ← alis · laiss · lasi · llais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lais" and "lar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lais" is a noun and "lar" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "lais" or "lar" show up more?
"lais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,862 in our French list, against #48,637 for "lar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "lais" and "lar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,724 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lais" and "lar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lep". 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 #4,724 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