Which to use
“leur” is a determiner and “levure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #72
- “leur” frequency rank
- #19,056
- “levure” frequency rank
- 19128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leur | levure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est à eux ou à elles. | Écume que fait la bière quand elle fermente, et dont les boulangers et les pâtissiers se servent quelquefois au lieu d’autre levain. |
Where the eye mixes leur and levure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: leur vs levure
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leur is \lœʁ\ while levure is \lə.vyʁ\. 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 (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leur is recorded at frequency rank #72, classified as adet, pronounced \lœʁ\. levure is at rank #19,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lə.vyʁ\.
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 19128, this pair ranks #374,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of leur vs levure
Shared letters: elru. Private to "leur": -. Private to "levure": v.
"leur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "levure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "leur" and "levure" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "leur" vs "levure" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "leur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "levure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leur" and "levure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "levure vs lure". 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 #374,844 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.