lavéevslavisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lavée is a adjective, lavis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lavée” is an adjective and “lavis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,469
“lavée” frequency rank
#41,866
“lavis” frequency rank
78335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lavée lavis
Definition Féminin singulier de lavé. Technique de dessin utilisant une seule couleur provenant souvent de l’encre de Chine, mais aussi le bistre, la sépia ou quelque autre substance colorante qui sont utilisées à des degrés de dilution divers.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lavée and lavis apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
lavée
5 ch
lavis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lavée is \la.ve\ while lavis is \la.vi\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lavée is recorded at frequency rank #36,469, classified as anadj, pronounced \la.ve\. lavis is at rank #41,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.vi\.

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 78335, this pair ranks #26,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lavée vs lavis

Shared letters: alv. Private to "lavée": . Private to "lavis": is.

"lavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "lavis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lavisalvis · laivs · laviss · lavsi · lavvis · llavis · lvais

Frequency comparison

lavée#36,469
lavis#41,866

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lavée" and "lavis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lavée" is an adjective and "lavis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lavée" or "lavis"?
"lavée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,469 in our French list, against #41,866 for "lavis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering lavée vs lavis

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “lavée”; for a noun, it's “lavis”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lavée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list