Which to use
“lieu” and “lis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #221
- “lieu” frequency rank
- #3,147
- “lis” frequency rank
- 3368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lieu | lis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Portion de l’espace, soit prise en elle-même, soit considérée par rapport à ce qui l’occupe. | Genre de liliacées qui porte, sur une haute tige, des fleurs à trois pétales et trois sépales pétaloïdes. |
Where the eye mixes lieu and lis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between lieu and lis
A purely visual mix-up. lieu (\ljø\) and lis (\lis\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lieu is recorded at frequency rank #221, classified as anoun, pronounced \ljø\. lis is at rank #3,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lis\.
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 3368, this pair ranks #434,202 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lieu vs lis
Shared letters: il. Private to "lieu": eu. Private to "lis": s.
"lieu" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lieu ← ileu · leiu · liue · llieu
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lieu" for "lis" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "lieu" or "lis" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lieu" and "lis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lieu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,202 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lieu" and "lis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs lis". 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 #434,202 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.