leavslocaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lea is a pronoun, loca is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lea” is a pronoun and “loca” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,375
“lea” frequency rank
#43,530
“loca” frequency rank
64905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lea loca
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’. Folle, femme atteinte de folie.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lea and loca apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
lea
4 ch
loca

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lea is \lə.a\ while loca is \ˈlo.ka\. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64905, 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\. loca is at rank #43,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlo.ka\.

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 64905, this pair ranks #74,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lea vs loca

Shared letters: al. Private to "lea": e. Private to "loca": co.

"lea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "loca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • localcoa · lloca · loac · locca · olca

Frequency comparison

lea#21,375
loca#43,530

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lea" and "loca" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lea" is a pronoun and "loca" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lea" or "loca"?
"lea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,375 in our French list, against #43,530 for "loca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering lea vs loca

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “lea”; for a noun, it's “loca”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lea” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list