Which to use
“les” is an article and “limes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- #48,011
- “limes” frequency rank
- 48018
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | les | limes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de le ou la. | Système de fortifications établi au long de certaines des frontières de l’Empire romain. |
Where the eye mixes les and limes
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 limes is \li.mɛs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
les is recorded at frequency rank #7, classified as anarticle, pronounced \le\. limes is at rank #48,011, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.mɛs\.
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 48018, this pair ranks #182,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of les vs limes
Shared letters: els. Private to "les": -. Private to "limes": im.
"les" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "limes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- limes ← ilmes · liems · limess · limmes · limse · llimes · lmies