Which to use
“le” is an article and “lune” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3
- “le” frequency rank
- #2,045
- “lune” frequency rank
- 2048
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | le | lune |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce… dont on parle maintenant. Déterminant marquant un nom masculin singulier, référant à une seule entité possible dans un contexte. | Satellite naturel de la Terre, qui tourne autour de celle-ci en un cycle de vingt-sept jours sept heures quarante-trois minutes. Le satellite réfléchit sur la Terre la lumière qu’il reçoit du Soleil. Lune s’écrit avec une majuscule en astronomie lorsqu'on s'en sert comme nom propre de cet astre, pour le distinguer des autres satellites naturels. |
Where the eye mixes le and lune
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: le vs lune
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: le is \lə\ while lune is \lyn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
le is recorded at frequency rank #3, classified as anarticle, pronounced \lə\. lune is at rank #2,045, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lyn\.
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 2048, this pair ranks #436,868 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of le vs lune
Shared letters: el. Private to "le": -. Private to "lune": nu.
"le" · 2 letters · shape CV · "lune" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lune ← llune · lnue · luen · lunne · ulne
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "le" and "lune" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "le" vs "lune" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "le" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,868 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "le" and "lune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lune vs lure". 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 #436,868 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.