Which to use
“les” is an article and “leste” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- #49,192
- “leste” frequency rank
- 49199
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | les | leste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de le ou la. | Qui a de la facilité, de la légèreté dans ses mouvements. |
Where the eye mixes les and leste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: les is \le\ while leste is \lɛst\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “les” sits inside “leste”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
les is recorded at frequency rank #7, classified as anarticle, pronounced \le\. leste is at rank #49,192, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lɛst\.
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 49199, this pair ranks #172,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of les vs leste
Shared letters: els. Private to "les": -. Private to "leste": t.
"les" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "leste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- leste ← elste · leset · lesste · lestte · letse · lleste · lsete