leursvslèvresWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#126
“leurs” frequency rank
#2,934
“lèvres” frequency rank
3060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leurs lèvres
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel. Qui sont à eux. Plusieurs possesseurs et plusieurs objets. Pluriel de lèvre.

Where the eye mixes leurs and lèvres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
leurs
6 ch
lèvres

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leurs is \lœʁ\ while lèvres is \lɛvʁ\. 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 3060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leurs is recorded at frequency rank #126, classified as adet, pronounced \lœʁ\. lèvres is at rank #2,934, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛvʁ\.

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 3060, this pair ranks #434,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leurs vs lèvres

Shared letters: elrs. Private to "leurs": u. Private to "lèvres": .

"leurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "lèvres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leurs" and "lèvres" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leurs" is a determiner and "lèvres" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leurs" or "lèvres"?
"leurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #126 in our French list, against #2,934 for "lèvres". 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 "leurs" and "lèvres". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lèvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leurs" and "lèvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Legros vs lèvres". 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