lepvslesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lep is a adjective, les is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lep” is an adjective and “les” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,766
“lep” frequency rank
#7
“les” frequency rank
49773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lep les
Definition Beau, agréable. Pluriel de le ou la.

Where the eye mixes lep and les

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
lep
3 ch
les

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lep is \lɛːp\ while les is \le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - p in “lep” becomes s in “les”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lep is recorded at frequency rank #49,766, classified as anadj, pronounced \lɛːp\. 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 49773, this pair ranks #167,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lep vs les

Shared letters: el. Private to "lep": p. Private to "les": s.

"lep" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lep" and "les" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lep" is an adjective and "les" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lep" or "les"?
"les" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7 in our French list, against #49,766 for "lep". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list