lem vs lui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“lem” is a noun and “lui” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,348
“lem” frequency rank: #68
“lui” frequency rank: 40416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lem	lui
Definition	Membre, partie du corps.	Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du singulier épicène du complément d’objet indirect.

Letter map: lem vs lui

Shared letters muted; letters that set lem and lui apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

lem

3 ch

lui

Role in the sentence - lem and lui

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lem is anoun and luiapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lem is recorded at frequency rank #40,348, classified as anoun. lui is at rank #68, tagged as apron, pronounced \lɥi\.

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 40416, this pair ranks #240,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lem vs lui

Shared letters: l. Private to "lem": em. Private to "lui": iu.

"lem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lem" and "lui" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lem" is a noun and "lui" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "lem" or "lui"?

"lui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #68 in our French list, against #40,348 for "lem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "lem" vs "lui" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "lem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #240,681 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lem" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lem vs lep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #240,681 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.