Which to use
“laisser” and “lister” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #583
- “laisser” frequency rank
- #23,924
- “lister” frequency rank
- 24507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laisser | lister |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Quitter quelqu’un ou quelque chose. | Mettre sous forme de liste. |
Where the eye mixes laisser and lister
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. laisser runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against lister's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between laisser and lister
A purely visual mix-up. laisser (\le.se\) and lister (\lis.te\) 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 24507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laisser is recorded at frequency rank #583, classified as averb, pronounced \le.se\. lister is at rank #23,924, tagged as averb, pronounced \lis.te\.
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 24507, this pair ranks #346,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of laisser vs lister
Shared letters: eilrs. Private to "laisser": a. Private to "lister": t.
"laisser" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "lister" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "laisser" and "lister" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "laisser" or "lister" show up more?
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 "laisser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lister" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #346,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laisser" and "lister" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs lister". 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 #346,235 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.