leurvsluzWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leur is a determiner, luz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leur” is a determiner and “luz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#72
“leur” frequency rank
#21,684
“luz” frequency rank
21756
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leur luz
Definition Qui est à eux ou à elles. Lumière.

Where the eye mixes leur and luz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
leur
3 ch
luz

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leur is \lœʁ\ while luz is \ˈluθ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 21756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leur is recorded at frequency rank #72, classified as adet, pronounced \lœʁ\. luz is at rank #21,684, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈluθ\.

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 21756, this pair ranks #361,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leur vs luz

Shared letters: lu. Private to "leur": er. Private to "luz": z.

"leur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "luz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leurelur · leru · leurr · lleur · luer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leur" and "luz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leur" is a determiner and "luz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leur" or "luz"?
"leur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #72 in our French list, against #21,684 for "luz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "leur" and "luz". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #361,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leur" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs luz". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list