Which to use
“lavent” and “lèvent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,573
- “lavent” frequency rank
- #16,936
- “lèvent” frequency rank
- 52509
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lavent | lèvent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de laver. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de lever. |
Where the eye mixes lavent and lèvent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lavent and lèvent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between lavent and lèvent
A purely visual mix-up. lavent (\lav\) and lèvent (\lɛv\) 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 a single letter - a in “lavent” becomes è in “lèvent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52509, 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\. lèvent is at rank #16,936, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɛv\.
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 52509, this pair ranks #147,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lavent vs lèvent
Shared letters: elntv. Private to "lavent": a. Private to "lèvent": è.
"lavent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "lèvent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lavent ← alvent · laevnt · lavennt · laventt · lavetn · lavnet · lavvent · llavent
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lavent" for "lèvent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "lavent" or "lèvent" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lavent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lèvent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #147,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lavent" and "lèvent" 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 #147,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.