Which to use
“leger” and “légère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,883
- “leger” frequency rank
- #3,019
- “légère” frequency rank
- 35902
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leger | légère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Léger, décontracté, qualifie un habillement. | Féminin singulier de léger. |
Where the eye mixes leger and légère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. leger runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against légère's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses leger with légère
A purely visual mix-up. leger (\leˈʒɛːɐ̯\) and légère (\le.ʒɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leger is recorded at frequency rank #32,883, classified as anadj, pronounced \leˈʒɛːɐ̯\. légère is at rank #3,019, tagged as anadj, pronounced \le.ʒɛʁ\.
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 35902, this pair ranks #273,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leger vs légère
Shared letters: eglr. Private to "leger": -. Private to "légère": èé.
"leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "légère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- leger ← elger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "leger" and "légère" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "leger" vs "légère" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "leger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "légère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leger" and "légère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leger vs liker". 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 #273,395 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.