leak vs leur, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“leak” is a noun and “leur” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,893
“leak” frequency rank: #72
“leur” frequency rank: 38965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	leak	leur
Definition	Fuite d’informations confidentielles.	Qui est à eux ou à elles.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

leak

4 ch

leur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leak is \lik\ while leur is \lœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leak is recorded at frequency rank #38,893, classified as anoun, pronounced \lik\. leur is at rank #72, tagged as adet, pronounced \lœʁ\.

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 38965, this pair ranks #251,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leak vs leur

Shared letters: el. Private to "leak": ak. Private to "leur": ru.

"leak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "leur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

leak ← elak · leakk · leka · lleak
leur ← elur · leru · leurr · lleur · luer

Frequency comparison

leak#38,893

leur#72

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leak" and "leur" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leak" is a noun and "leur" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "leak" or "leur"?

"leur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #72 in our French list, against #38,893 for "leak". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering leak vs leur

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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