léguervslouerTell them apart

Which to use

“léguer” and “louer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,473
“léguer” frequency rank
#4,955
“louer” frequency rank
37428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature léguer louer
Definition Donner par testament ou par autre acte de dernière volonté. Donner à louage ou à loyer.

Where the eye mixes léguer and louer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. léguer runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against louer's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
léguer
5 ch
louer

Look-alike desk: léguer vs louer

A purely visual mix-up. léguer (\le.ɡe\) and louer (\lwe\) 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 37428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

léguer is recorded at frequency rank #32,473, classified as averb, pronounced \le.ɡe\. louer is at rank #4,955, tagged as averb, pronounced \lwe\.

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 37428, this pair ranks #262,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of léguer vs louer

Shared letters: elru. Private to "léguer": gé. Private to "louer": o.

"léguer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "louer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • louer ← llouer · loeur · louerr · loure · luoer · oluer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "léguer" and "louer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\le.ɡe\ versus \lwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "léguer" or "louer"?
"louer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,955 in our French list, against #32,473 for "léguer". 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 "léguer" and "louer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "léguer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "louer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,587 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "léguer" and "louer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "léguer vs letter". 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 #262,587 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