lamvslerTell them apart

Quick tell: lam is a verb, ler is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#25,713
“lam” frequency rank
#41,868
“ler” frequency rank
67581
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: lam vs ler

Shared letters muted; letters that set lam and ler apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
lam
3 ch
ler

Role in the sentence - lam and ler

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lam is averb and leranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67581, 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\. ler is at rank #41,868, tagged as anoun.

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 67581, this pair ranks #62,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lam vs ler

Shared letters: l. Private to "lam": am. Private to "ler": er.

"lam" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ler" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lam" and "ler" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lam" is a verb and "ler" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "lam" or "ler" show up more?
"lam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,713 in our French list, against #41,868 for "ler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lam" and "ler".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lam" and "ler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs ler". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #62,797 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