Which to use
“légale” is an adjective and “Lepage” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,249
- “légale” frequency rank
- #17,179
- “Lepage” frequency rank
- 21428
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | légale | Lepage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de légal. | Nom de famille. |
Where the eye mixes légale and Lepage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. légale and Lepage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses légale with Lepage
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: légale is \le.ɡal\ while Lepage is \lə.paʒ\. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
légale is recorded at frequency rank #4,249, classified as anadj, pronounced \le.ɡal\. Lepage is at rank #17,179, tagged as aname, pronounced \lə.paʒ\.
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 21428, this pair ranks #363,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of légale vs Lepage
Shared letters: aegl. Private to "légale": é. Private to "Lepage": p.
"légale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "Lepage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Lepage ← elpage · leapge · lepaeg · lepagge · lepgae · leppage · llepage · lpeage
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "légale" for "Lepage" ever safe?
Frequency check: "légale" vs "Lepage" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "légale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Lepage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "légale" and "Lepage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lepage vs levage". 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 #363,208 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.