létalevsloyaleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“létale” and “loyale” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,585
“létale” frequency rank
#24,275
“loyale” frequency rank
59860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature létale loyale
Definition Féminin singulier de létal. Féminin singulier de loyal.

Where the eye mixes létale and loyale

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. létale (CVCVCV) and loyale (CVVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
létale
6 ch
loyale

Look-alike desk: létale vs loyale

A purely visual mix-up. létale (\le.tal\) and loyale (\lwa.jal\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

létale is recorded at frequency rank #35,585, classified as anadj, pronounced \le.tal\. loyale is at rank #24,275, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lwa.jal\.

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 59860, this pair ranks #100,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of létale vs loyale

Shared letters: ael. Private to "létale": té. Private to "loyale": oy.

"létale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "loyale" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loyale ← lloyale · loayle · loyael · loyalle · loylae · loyyale · lyoale · olyale

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "létale" for "loyale" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\le.tal\ versus \lwa.jal\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "létale" or "loyale"?
"loyale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,275 in our French list, against #35,585 for "létale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "létale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loyale" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "létale" and "loyale" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "létale vs levage". 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 #100,812 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