Which to use
“lavent” is a verb and “laves” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,573
- “lavent” frequency rank
- #26,781
- “laves” frequency rank
- 62354
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lavent | laves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de laver. | Pluriel de lave. |
Same sound, different letters: lavent vs laves
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. lavent runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against laves's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: lavent vs laves
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lavent and laves carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lav\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lavent is recorded at frequency rank #35,573, classified as averb, pronounced \lav\. laves is at rank #26,781, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lav\.
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 62354, this pair ranks #87,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lavent vs laves
Shared letters: aelv. Private to "lavent": nt. Private to "laves": s.
"lavent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "laves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lavent" and "laves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lavent" vs "laves" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "lavent" / "laves". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "lavent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lavent" and "laves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavait vs lavent". 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 #87,590 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.