légers vs leurs, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“légers” is an adjective and “leurs” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,587
“légers” frequency rank: #126
“leurs” frequency rank: 7713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	légers	leurs
Definition	Masculin pluriel de léger.	Troisième personne du pluriel. Qui sont à eux. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set légers and leurs apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

légers

5 ch

leurs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: légers is \le.ʒe\ while leurs is \lœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

légers is recorded at frequency rank #7,587, classified as anadj, pronounced \le.ʒe\. leurs is at rank #126, tagged as adet, 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 7713, this pair ranks #422,348 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of légers vs leurs

Shared letters: elrs. Private to "légers": gé. Private to "leurs": u.

"légers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "leurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

leurs ← elurs · lerus · leurrs · leurss · leusr · lleurs · luers

Frequency comparison

légers#7,587

leurs#126

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "légers" and "leurs" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "légers" is an adjective and "leurs" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "légers" or "leurs"?

"leurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #126 in our French list, against #7,587 for "légers". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering légers vs leurs

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “légers”; for a determiner, it's “leurs”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “légers” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable