Which to use
“legal” is an adjective and “lègue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,656
- “legal” frequency rank
- #32,472
- “lègue” frequency rank
- 57128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | legal | lègue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Légal, légale : conforme à la loi. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de léguer. |
Where the eye mixes legal and lègue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. legal (CVCVC) and lègue (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: legal vs lègue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: legal is \leˈɡaːl\ while lègue is \lɛɡ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
legal is recorded at frequency rank #24,656, classified as anadj, pronounced \leˈɡaːl\. 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 57128, this pair ranks #116,894 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of legal vs lègue
Shared letters: egl. Private to "legal": a. Private to "lègue": uè.
"legal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lègue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- legal ← elgal · leagl · legall · leggal · legla · lgeal · llegal
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "legal" and "lègue" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "legal" or "lègue" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "legal" and "lègue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "legal" 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 #116,894 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "legal" 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 #116,894 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.