lentevsletterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,854
“lente” frequency rank
#37,407
“letter” frequency rank
45261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lente letter
Definition Œuf de pou. Lettre, caractère.

Where the eye mixes lente and letter

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

5 ch
lente
6 ch
letter

Visual trap between lente and letter

A purely visual mix-up. lente (\lɑ̃t\) and letter (\ˈlɛt.ə(ɹ)\) 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 45261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lente is recorded at frequency rank #7,854, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃t\. letter is at rank #37,407, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɛt.ə(ɹ)\.

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 45261, this pair ranks #204,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lente vs letter

Shared letters: elt. Private to "lente": n. Private to "letter": r.

"lente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lente ← elnte · lenet · lennte · lentte · letne · llente · lnete
  • letter ← eltter · leter · letetr · letterr · lletter · lteter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lente" and "letter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lɑ̃t\ versus \ˈlɛt.ə(ɹ)\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lente" vs "letter" - which ranks higher?
"lente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,854 in our French list, against #37,407 for "letter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lente" and "letter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leste 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 #204,124 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