Which to use
“légère” is an adjective and “leurre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,019
- “légère” frequency rank
- #20,184
- “leurre” frequency rank
- 23203
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | légère | leurre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de léger. | Morceau de cuir rouge en forme d’oiseau, dont les fauconniers se servaient pour appeler les oiseaux de fauconnerie lorsqu’ils ne revenaient pas au réclame. |
Where the eye mixes légère and leurre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. légère (CVCVCV) and leurre (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: légère vs leurre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: légère is \le.ʒɛʁ\ while leurre is \lœʁ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
légère is recorded at frequency rank #3,019, classified as anadj, pronounced \le.ʒɛʁ\. leurre is at rank #20,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lœʁ\.
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 23203, this pair ranks #353,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of légère vs leurre
Shared letters: elr. Private to "légère": gèé. Private to "leurre": u.
"légère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "leurre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- leurre ← elurre · lerure · leure · leurer · lleurre · luerre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "légère" and "leurre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "légère" or "leurre" show up more?
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 "légère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leurre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #353,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "légère" and "leurre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leurre vs lure". 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 #353,811 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.