likevsloveConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,672
“like” frequency rank
#2,833
“love” frequency rank
8505
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature like love
Definition Signal d’approbation d’une publication sur Facebook ou, par extension, sur un média social. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de lover.

Where the eye mixes like and love

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
like
4 ch
love

Look-alike desk: like vs love

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: like is \lajk\ while love is \lɔv\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8505, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

like is recorded at frequency rank #5,672, classified as anoun, pronounced \lajk\. love is at rank #2,833, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɔv\.

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 8505, this pair ranks #419,801 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of like vs love

Shared letters: el. Private to "like": ik. Private to "love": ov.

"like" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "love" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • likeilke · liek · likke · lkie · llike
  • lovellove · loev · lovve · lvoe · olve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "like" for "love" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "like" is a noun and "love" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "like" or "love"?
"love" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,833 in our French list, against #5,672 for "like". 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 "like" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "love" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,801 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "like" and "love" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "like vs liker". 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 #419,801 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