lezvslirezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lez is a preposition, lirez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lez” is a preposition and “lirez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,063
“lez” frequency rank
#47,428
“lirez” frequency rank
68491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lez lirez
Definition À côté de, proche de, tout contre. Deuxième personne du pluriel du futur de lire.

Where the eye mixes lez and lirez

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

3 ch
lez
5 ch
lirez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lez is \lɛ\ while lirez is \li.ʁe\. 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 (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lez is recorded at frequency rank #21,063, classified as aprep, pronounced \lɛ\. lirez is at rank #47,428, tagged as averb, pronounced \li.ʁe\.

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 68491, this pair ranks #58,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lez vs lirez

Shared letters: elz. Private to "lez": -. Private to "lirez": ir.

"lez" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lirez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lirezilrez · lierz · lirezz · lirrez · lirze · llirez · lriez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lez" and "lirez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lez" is a preposition and "lirez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lez" or "lirez"?
"lez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,063 in our French list, against #47,428 for "lirez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lez" and "lirez". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lirez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lez" and "lirez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs lirez". 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