Which to use
“lais” and “loos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- #46,271
- “loos” frequency rank
- 88133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lais | loos |
|---|---|---|
| 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 loo. |
Where the eye mixes lais and loos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lais and loos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lais with loos
A purely visual mix-up. lais (\lɛ\) and loos (\luz\) 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 88133, 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\. loos is at rank #46,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luz\.
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 88133, this pair ranks #7,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lais vs loos
Shared letters: ls. Private to "lais": ai. Private to "loos": o.
"lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "loos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lais" for "loos" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lais" vs "loos" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lais" and "loos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lais" and "loos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loos". 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 #7,399 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.