laisvsledsConfusable pair

Which to use

“lais” and “leds” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,862
“lais” frequency rank
#32,882
“leds” frequency rank
74744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lais leds
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 led.

Where the eye mixes lais and leds

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

4 ch
lais
4 ch
leds

Visual trap between lais and leds

A purely visual mix-up. lais (\lɛ\) and leds (\lɛd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74744, 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\. leds is at rank #32,882, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛd\.

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 74744, this pair ranks #36,154 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lais vs leds

Shared letters: ls. Private to "lais": ai. Private to "leds": de.

"lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "leds" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laisalis · laiss · lasi · llais
  • ledselds · ldes · ledds · ledss · lesd · lleds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lais" and "leds" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lɛ\ versus \lɛd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lais" vs "leds" - which ranks higher?
"leds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,882 in our French list, against #41,862 for "lais". 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 "lais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,154 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lais" and "leds" 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 #36,154 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