Which to use
“lay” is an adjective and “les” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,500
- “lay” frequency rank
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- 27507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lay | les |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante de lé. | Pluriel de le ou la. |
Letter map: lay vs les
Shared letters muted; letters that set lay and les apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Role in the sentence - lay and les
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lay is anadjective and lesanarticle. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lay is recorded at frequency rank #27,500, classified as anadj. les is at rank #7, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \le\.
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 27507, this pair ranks #328,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lay vs les
Shared letters: l. Private to "lay": ay. Private to "les": es.
"lay" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lay" and "les" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lay" vs "les" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "lay" vs "les" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "lay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "les" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lay" and "les" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lay vs lep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #328,532 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.