lamvslarConfusable pair

Quick tell: lam is a verb, lar is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lam” is a verb and “lar” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,713
“lam” frequency rank
#48,637
“lar” frequency rank
74350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lam lar
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe lemel/lemen/lemiñ. Trop.

Letter map: lam vs lar

Shared letters muted; letters that set lam and lar apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
lam
3 ch
lar

Grammar separator: lam vs lar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lam is averb and laranadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “lam” becomes r in “lar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lam is recorded at frequency rank #25,713, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈlãmː\. lar is at rank #48,637, tagged as anadv.

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 74350, this pair ranks #37,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lam vs lar

Shared letters: al. Private to "lam": m. Private to "lar": r.

"lam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lar" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lam" for "lar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lam" is a verb and "lar" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lam" or "lar"?
"lam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,713 in our French list, against #48,637 for "lar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "lam" vs "lar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lam" and "lar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #37,435 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