Which to use
“lem” is a noun and “les” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,348
- “lem” frequency rank
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- 40355
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lem | les |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Membre, partie du corps. | Pluriel de le ou la. |
Letter map: lem vs les
Shared letters muted; letters that set lem and les apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for lem / les
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lem is anoun and lesanarticle. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “lem” becomes s in “les”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lem is recorded at frequency rank #40,348, classified as anoun. les is at rank #7, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \le\.
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 40355, this pair ranks #241,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lem vs les
Shared letters: el. Private to "lem": m. Private to "les": s.
"lem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lem" for "les" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lem" vs "les" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "lem" and "les". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "lem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "les" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #241,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lem" and "les" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lem vs lep". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #241,146 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.