laisséevslaisserTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,261
“laissée” frequency rank
#583
“laisser” frequency rank
8844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laissée laisser
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de laisser. Quitter quelqu’un ou quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes laissée and laisser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
laissée
7 ch
laisser

Look-alike desk: laissée vs laisser

A purely visual mix-up. laissée (\lɛ.se\) and laisser (\le.se\) 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 8844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laissée is recorded at frequency rank #8,261, classified as averb, pronounced \lɛ.se\. laisser is at rank #583, tagged as averb, pronounced \le.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 8844, this pair ranks #418,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laissée vs laisser

Shared letters: aeils. Private to "laissée": é. Private to "laisser": r.

"laissée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV  ·  "laisser" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laisseralisser · laiser · laisesr · laisserr · laissre · lasiser · liasser · llaisser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laissée" for "laisser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɛ.se\ versus \le.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "laissée" vs "laisser" - which ranks higher?
"laisser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #583 in our French list, against #8,261 for "laissée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "laissée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laisser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laissée" and "laisser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laissée vs laisserez". 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 #418,679 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