lésésvsleursWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lésés is a verb, leurs is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lésés” is a verb and “leurs” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,943
“lésés” frequency rank
#126
“leurs” frequency rank
37069
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lésés leurs
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel de léser. Troisième personne du pluriel. Qui sont à eux. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lésés and leurs apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
lésés
5 ch
leurs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lésés is \le.ze\ while leurs is \lœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37069, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lésés is recorded at frequency rank #36,943, classified as averb, pronounced \le.ze\. leurs is at rank #126, 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 37069, this pair ranks #265,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lésés vs leurs

Shared letters: ls. Private to "lésés": é. Private to "leurs": eru.

"lésés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "leurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leurselurs · lerus · leurrs · leurss · leusr · lleurs · luers

Frequency comparison

lésés#36,943
leurs#126

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lésés" and "leurs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lésés" is a verb and "leurs" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lésés" or "leurs"?
"leurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #126 in our French list, against #36,943 for "lésés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering lésés vs leurs

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “lésés”; for a determiner, it's “leurs”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lésés” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list