lezvsloyWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,063
“lez” frequency rank
#44,027
“loy” frequency rank
65090
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lez loy
Definition À côté de, proche de, tout contre. Ancienne variante orthographique de loi.

Where the eye mixes lez and loy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
lez
3 ch
loy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lez is \lɛ\ while loy is \lwa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65090, 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\. loy is at rank #44,027, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lwa\.

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 65090, this pair ranks #73,881 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lez vs loy

Shared letters: l. Private to "lez": ez. Private to "loy": oy.

"lez" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "loy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lez" and "loy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lez" is a preposition and "loy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lez" or "loy"?
"lez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,063 in our French list, against #44,027 for "loy". 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 "loy". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,881 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lez" and "loy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loy". Nearby pair

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