levevsleverWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leve is a noun, lever is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leve” is a noun and “lever” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,877
“leve” frequency rank
#2,370
“lever” frequency rank
42247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leve lever
Definition Pension. Faire qu’une chose soit plus haut qu’elle n’était.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set leve and lever apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
leve
5 ch
lever

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leve is \ˈleː.ve\ while lever is \lə.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “leve” sits inside “lever”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leve is recorded at frequency rank #39,877, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈleː.ve\. lever is at rank #2,370, tagged as averb, pronounced \lə.ve\.

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 42247, this pair ranks #227,063 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leve vs lever

Shared letters: elv. Private to "leve": -. Private to "lever": r.

"leve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leveelve · leev · levve · lleve · lvee
  • leverelver · leevr · leverr · levre · levver · llever · lveer

Frequency comparison

leve#39,877
lever#2,370

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leve" and "lever" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leve" is a noun and "lever" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leve" or "lever"?
"lever" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,370 in our French list, against #39,877 for "leve". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering leve vs lever

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “leve”; for a verb, it's “lever”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “leve” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list