Which to use
“lea” is a pronoun and “les” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,375
- “lea” frequency rank
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- 21382
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lea | les |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom représentant la personne dont on parle et dont le genre est inconnu ou non-binaire. Utilisé en tant que complément d’objet direct. Devant un son vocalique (voyelle ou h muet), le ea est généralement élidé et le pronom se transforme en l’. | Pluriel de le ou la. |
Where the eye mixes lea and les
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lea vs les
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lea is \lə.a\ while les is \le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “lea” becomes s in “les”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lea is recorded at frequency rank #21,375, classified as apron, pronounced \lə.a\. 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 21382, this pair ranks #363,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lea vs les
Shared letters: el. Private to "lea": a. Private to "les": s.
"lea" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lea" for "les" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lea" vs "les" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lea" and "les" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lea" 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 #363,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lea" and "les" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lea vs lep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #363,444 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.