liéesvslineWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: liées is a adjective, line is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“liées” is an adjective and “line” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,082
“liées” frequency rank
#8,263
“line” frequency rank
11345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature liées line
Definition Féminin pluriel de lié. Corde, fil.

Where the eye mixes liées and line

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. liées runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against line's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
liées
4 ch
line

Visual trap between liées and line

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: liées is \lje\ while line is \laɪn\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

liées is recorded at frequency rank #3,082, classified as anadj, pronounced \lje\. line is at rank #8,263, tagged as anoun, pronounced \laɪn\.

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 11345, this pair ranks #409,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of liées vs line

Shared letters: eil. Private to "liées": . Private to "line": n.

"liées" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "line" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lineilne · linne · lline · lnie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "liées" and "line" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "liées" is an adjective and "line" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "liées" or "line"?
"liées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,082 in our French list, against #8,263 for "line". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "liées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "line" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #409,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "liées" and "line" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs line". 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 #409,513 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list