laissavslaisséeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,497
“laissa” frequency rank
#8,261
“laissée” frequency rank
22758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laissa laissée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de laisser. Participe passé féminin singulier de laisser.

Where the eye mixes laissa and laissée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
laissa
7 ch
laissée

Why the eye confuses laissa with laissée

A purely visual mix-up. laissa (\lɛ.sa\) and laissée (\lɛ.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laissa is recorded at frequency rank #14,497, classified as averb, pronounced \lɛ.sa\. laissée is at rank #8,261, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɛ.se\.

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 22758, this pair ranks #356,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laissa vs laissée

Shared letters: ails. Private to "laissa": -. Private to "laissée": .

"laissa" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "laissée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laissaalissa · laisa · laisas · lasisa · liassa · llaissa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laissa" and "laissée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɛ.sa\ versus \lɛ.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "laissa" vs "laissée" - which ranks higher?
"laissée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,261 in our French list, against #14,497 for "laissa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laissa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laissée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laissa" and "laissée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laissa vs Larissa". 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 #356,315 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