langervslanguesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,889
“langer” frequency rank
#1,999
“langues” frequency rank
40888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature langer langues
Definition Mettre une couche à un bébé. Pluriel de langue.

Where the eye mixes langer and langues

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

6 ch
langer
7 ch
langues

Look-alike desk: langer vs langues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: langer is \lɑ̃.ʒe\ while langues is \lɑ̃ɡ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

langer is recorded at frequency rank #38,889, classified as averb, pronounced \lɑ̃.ʒe\. langues is at rank #1,999, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃ɡ\.

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 40888, this pair ranks #237,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of langer vs langues

Shared letters: aegln. Private to "langer": r. Private to "langues": su.

"langer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "langues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • langer ← alnger · lagner · lanegr · langerr · langger · langre · lannger · llanger
  • langues ← alngues · lagnues · langeus · langgues · languess · languse · lanngues · lanuges

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "langer" for "langues" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "langer" is a verb and "langues" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "langer" or "langues"?
"langues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,999 in our French list, against #38,889 for "langer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "langer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "langues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "langer" and "langues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "langer vs linges". 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 #237,164 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