laissezvslasséeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,319
“laissez” frequency rank
#44,542
“lassée” frequency rank
46861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laissez lassée
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de laisser. Participe passé féminin singulier de lasser.

Where the eye mixes laissez and lassée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. laissez runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against lassée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
laissez
6 ch
lassée

Visual trap between laissez and lassée

A purely visual mix-up. laissez (\lɛ.se\) and lassée (\la.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 46861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laissez is recorded at frequency rank #2,319, classified as averb, pronounced \lɛ.se\. lassée is at rank #44,542, tagged as averb, pronounced \la.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 46861, this pair ranks #191,476 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of laissez vs lassée

Shared letters: aels. Private to "laissez": iz. Private to "lassée": é.

"laissez" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "lassée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laissez ← alissez · laisesz · laisez · laissezz · laissze · lasisez · liassez · llaissez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laissez" for "lassée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɛ.se\ versus \la.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laissez" or "lassée"?
"laissez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,319 in our French list, against #44,542 for "lassée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "laissez" and "lassée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laissez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lassée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,476 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laissez" and "lassée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lassée vs lasso". 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 #191,476 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