Which to use
“left” is an adjective and “lem” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,581
- “left” frequency rank
- #40,348
- “lem” frequency rank
- 59929
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | left | lem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gauche. | Membre, partie du corps. |
Letter map: left vs lem
Shared letters muted; letters that set left and lem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for left / lem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: left is anadjective and lemanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
left is recorded at frequency rank #19,581, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈlɛft\. lem is at rank #40,348, tagged as anoun.
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 59929, this pair ranks #100,409 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of left vs lem
Shared letters: el. Private to "left": ft. Private to "lem": m.
"left" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- left ← elft · lefft · leftt · letf · lfet · lleft
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "left" for "lem" ever safe?
Frequency check: "left" vs "lem" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "left" and "lem". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "left" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,409 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "left" and "lem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lem vs lep". 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 #100,409 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.