legervsloyerConfusable pair

Quick tell: leger is a adjective, loyer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leger” is an adjective and “loyer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,883
“leger” frequency rank
#5,262
“loyer” frequency rank
38145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leger loyer
Definition Léger, décontracté, qualifie un habillement. Prix de la location d’une maison ou d’un appartement.

Where the eye mixes leger and loyer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
leger
5 ch
loyer

Why the eye confuses leger with loyer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leger is \leˈʒɛːɐ̯\ while loyer is \lwa.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38145, 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\. loyer is at rank #5,262, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lwa.je\.

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 38145, this pair ranks #257,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leger vs loyer

Shared letters: elr. Private to "leger": g. Private to "loyer": oy.

"leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "loyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legerelger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
  • loyerlloyer · loeyr · loyerr · loyre · loyyer · lyoer · olyer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leger" for "loyer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leger" is an adjective and "loyer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leger" or "loyer"?
"loyer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,262 in our French list, against #32,883 for "leger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "leger" and "loyer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leger" and "loyer" 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 #257,350 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