Which to use
“lap” is a pronoun and “les” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,890
- “lap” frequency rank
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- 37897
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lap | les |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rien. | Pluriel de le ou la. |
Where the eye mixes lap and les
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between lap and les
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lap is \lap\ while les is \le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lap is recorded at frequency rank #37,890, classified as apron, pronounced \lap\. les is at rank #7, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \le\.
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 37897, this pair ranks #259,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lap vs les
Shared letters: l. Private to "lap": ap. Private to "les": es.
"lap" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lap" for "les" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lap" vs "les" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lap" and "les" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lap" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "les" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lap" and "les" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lap vs lep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #259,196 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.