Which to use
“lake” is a noun and “le” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,242
- “lake” frequency rank
- #3
- “le” frequency rank
- 11245
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lake | le |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lac. | Ce… dont on parle maintenant. Déterminant marquant un nom masculin singulier, référant à une seule entité possible dans un contexte. |
Where the eye mixes lake and le
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lake vs le
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lake is \ˈleɪk\ while le is \lə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lake is recorded at frequency rank #11,242, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈleɪk\. le is at rank #3, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \lə\.
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 11245, this pair ranks #409,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lake vs le
Shared letters: el. Private to "lake": ak. Private to "le": -.
"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "le" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lake ← alke · laek · lakke · lkae · llake
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lake" and "le" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "lake" or "le"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lake" and "le" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "le" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lake" and "le" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lake". 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 #409,871 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.