Which to use
“law” is a noun and “le” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,186
- “law” frequency rank
- #3
- “le” frequency rank
- 12189
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | law | le |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Loi, règle. | Ce… dont on parle maintenant. Déterminant marquant un nom masculin singulier, référant à une seule entité possible dans un contexte. |
Where the eye mixes law and le
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: law vs le
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: law is \lɔ\ while le is \lə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
law is recorded at frequency rank #12,186, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔ\. le is at rank #3, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \lə\.
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 12189, this pair ranks #406,234 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of law vs le
Shared letters: l. Private to "law": aw. Private to "le": e.
"law" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "le" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "law" and "le" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "law" vs "le" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "law" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "le" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,234 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "law" and "le" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "law vs lep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #406,234 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.