laventvslavezConfusable pair

Which to use

“lavent” and “lavez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,573
“lavent” frequency rank
#31,117
“lavez” frequency rank
66690
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lavent lavez
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de laver. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de laver.

Where the eye mixes lavent and lavez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lavent runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against lavez's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
lavent
5 ch
lavez

Why the eye confuses lavent with lavez

A purely visual mix-up. lavent (\lav\) and lavez (\la.ve\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66690, 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\. lavez is at rank #31,117, tagged as averb, pronounced \la.ve\.

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 66690, this pair ranks #66,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lavent vs lavez

Shared letters: aelv. Private to "lavent": nt. Private to "lavez": z.

"lavent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "lavez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lavent ← alvent · laevnt · lavennt · laventt · lavetn · lavnet · lavvent · llavent
  • lavez ← alvez · laevz · lavezz · lavvez · lavze · llavez · lvaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lavent" for "lavez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lav\ versus \la.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lavent" vs "lavez" - which ranks higher?
"lavez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,117 in our French list, against #35,573 for "lavent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lavent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lavez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lavent" and "lavez" 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 #66,712 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