Which to use
“levain” is a noun and “levais” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,162
- “levain” frequency rank
- #48,009
- “levais” frequency rank
- 82171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | levain | levais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Morceau de pâte aigrie qui, mêlée à la pâte dont on veut faire du pain, sert à la faire lever, à la faire fermenter. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de lever. |
Where the eye mixes levain and levais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: levain vs levais
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: levain is \lə.vɛ̃\ while levais is \lə.vɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “levain” becomes s in “levais”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
levain is recorded at frequency rank #34,162, classified as anoun, pronounced \lə.vɛ̃\. levais is at rank #48,009, tagged as averb, pronounced \lə.vɛ\.
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 82171, this pair ranks #17,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of levain vs levais
Shared letters: aeilv. Private to "levain": n. Private to "levais": s.
"levain" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "levais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "levain" and "levais" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "levain" or "levais"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "levain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "levais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "levain" and "levais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavait vs levais". 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 #17,267 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.