Which to use
“leave” is a verb and “légale” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,029
- “leave” frequency rank
- #4,249
- “légale” frequency rank
- 29278
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leave | légale |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partir, s’en aller. | Féminin singulier de légal. |
Where the eye mixes leave and légale
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. leave runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against légale's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses leave with légale
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leave is \ˈliv\ while légale is \le.ɡal\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leave is recorded at frequency rank #25,029, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈliv\. légale is at rank #4,249, tagged as anadj, pronounced \le.ɡal\.
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 29278, this pair ranks #317,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leave vs légale
Shared letters: ael. Private to "leave": v. Private to "légale": gé.
"leave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "légale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- leave ← elave · laeve · leaev · leavve · levae · lleave
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "leave" and "légale" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "leave" or "légale"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "leave" and "légale" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "leave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "légale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #317,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leave" and "légale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leave vs leste". 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 #317,680 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.