lesvslevyConfusable pair

Quick tell: les is a article, levy is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#7
“les” frequency rank
#19,894
“levy” frequency rank
19901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature les levy
Definition Pluriel de le ou la. Prélever, imposer.

Letter map: les vs levy

Shared letters muted; letters that set les and levy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
les
4 ch
levy

Grammar separator: les vs levy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: les is anarticle and levyaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

les is recorded at frequency rank #7, classified as anarticle, pronounced \le\. levy is at rank #19,894, tagged as averb.

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 19901, this pair ranks #370,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of les vs levy

Shared letters: el. Private to "les": s. Private to "levy": vy.

"les" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "levy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • levyelvy · levvy · levyy · leyv · llevy · lvey

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "les" and "levy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "les" is an article and "levy" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "les" or "levy" show up more?
"les" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7 in our French list, against #19,894 for "levy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "les" and "levy". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "les" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #370,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "les" and "levy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "levy vs Livry". 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 #370,957 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