liraivslivraitConfusable pair

Which to use

“lirai” and “livrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,031
“lirai” frequency rank
#35,582
“livrait” frequency rank
71613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lirai livrait
Definition Première personne du singulier du futur de lire. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe livrer.

Where the eye mixes lirai and livrait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lirai runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against livrait's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
lirai
7 ch
livrait

Why the eye confuses lirai with livrait

A purely visual mix-up. lirai (\li.ʁe\) and livrait (\li.vʁɛ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lirai is recorded at frequency rank #36,031, classified as averb, pronounced \li.ʁe\. livrait is at rank #35,582, tagged as averb, pronounced \li.vʁɛ\.

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 71613, this pair ranks #46,952 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lirai vs livrait

Shared letters: ailr. Private to "lirai": -. Private to "livrait": tv.

"lirai" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "livrait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liraiilrai · liari · liria · lirrai · llirai · lriai
  • livraitilvrait · lirvait · livarit · livraitt · livrati · livriat · livrrait · livvrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lirai" for "livrait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\li.ʁe\ versus \li.vʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lirai" or "livrait"?
"livrait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,582 in our French list, against #36,031 for "lirai". 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 "lirai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "livrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,952 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lirai" and "livrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavait vs livrait". 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 #46,952 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