Which to use
“lam” is a verb and “le” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,713
- “lam” frequency rank
- #3
- “le” frequency rank
- 25716
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lam | le |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe lemel/lemen/lemiñ. | Ce… dont on parle maintenant. Déterminant marquant un nom masculin singulier, référant à une seule entité possible dans un contexte. |
Where the eye mixes lam and le
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lam vs le
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lam is \ˈlãmː\ while le is \lə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25716, 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\. 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 25716, this pair ranks #339,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lam vs le
Shared letters: l. Private to "lam": am. Private to "le": e.
"lam" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "le" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lam" and "le" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lam" vs "le" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lam" 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 #339,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lam" and "le" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lam vs lep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #339,278 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.