laissentvslaissesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: laissent is a verb, laisses is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laissent” is a verb and “laisses” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,934
“laissent” frequency rank
#10,184
“laisses” frequency rank
14118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laissent laisses
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de laisser. Pluriel de laisse.

Same sound, different letters: laissent vs laisses

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. laissent runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCC) against laisses's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
laissent
7 ch
laisses

Ear matches; page differs - laissent and laisses

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: laissent and laisses carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lɛs\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laissent is recorded at frequency rank #3,934, classified as averb, pronounced \lɛs\. laisses is at rank #10,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛs\.

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 14118, this pair ranks #398,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laissent vs laisses

Shared letters: aeils. Private to "laissent": nt. Private to "laisses": -.

"laissent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "laisses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laissent ← alissent · laisent · laisesnt · laissennt · laissentt · laissetn · laissnet · lasisent
  • laisses ← alisses · laisess · laissess · laissse · lasises · llaisses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laissent" and "laisses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laissent" is a verb and "laisses" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "laissent" vs "laisses" - which ranks higher?
"laissent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,934 in our French list, against #10,184 for "laisses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "laissent" / "laisses". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laissent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laissent" and "laisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laisses vs lassée". 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 #398,109 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