Which to use
“les” is an article and “lis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7
- “les” frequency rank
- #3,147
- “lis” frequency rank
- 3154
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | les | lis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de le ou la. | Genre de liliacées qui porte, sur une haute tige, des fleurs à trois pétales et trois sépales pétaloïdes. |
Where the eye mixes les and lis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: les is \le\ while lis is \lis\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “les” becomes i in “lis”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
les is recorded at frequency rank #7, classified as anarticle, pronounced \le\. lis is at rank #3,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lis\.
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 3154, this pair ranks #434,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of les vs lis
Shared letters: ls. Private to "les": e. Private to "lis": i.
"les" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC