leavevslègueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“leave” and “lègue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,029
“leave” frequency rank
#32,472
“lègue” frequency rank
57501
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leave lègue
Definition Partir, s’en aller. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de léguer.

Where the eye mixes leave and lègue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. leave (CVVCV) and lègue (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
leave
5 ch
lègue

Visual trap between leave and lègue

A purely visual mix-up. leave (\ˈliv\) and lègue (\lɛɡ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57501, 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\. lègue is at rank #32,472, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɛɡ\.

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 57501, this pair ranks #114,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leave vs lègue

Shared letters: el. Private to "leave": av. Private to "lègue": guè.

"leave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "lègue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leave ← elave · laeve · leaev · leavve · levae · lleave

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leave" and "lègue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈliv\ versus \lɛɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "leave" vs "lègue" - which ranks higher?
"leave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,029 in our French list, against #32,472 for "lègue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lègue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leave" and "lègue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lègue 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 #114,664 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list