lepvsleurTell them apart

Quick tell: lep is a adjective, leur is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#49,766
“lep” frequency rank
#72
“leur” frequency rank
49838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lep leur
Definition Beau, agréable. Qui est à eux ou à elles.

Where the eye mixes lep and leur

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

3 ch
lep
4 ch
leur

Why the eye confuses lep with leur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lep is \lɛːp\ while leur is \lœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49838, 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\. leur is at rank #72, tagged as adet, pronounced \lœʁ\.

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 49838, this pair ranks #167,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lep vs leur

Shared letters: el. Private to "lep": p. Private to "leur": ru.

"lep" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "leur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leurelur · leru · leurr · lleur · luer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lep" and "leur" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lep" is an adjective and "leur" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "lep" or "leur" show up more?
"leur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #72 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lep" and "leur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lep" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lep" and "leur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lep". 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 #167,491 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