liresvslistésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,129
“lires” frequency rank
#37,895
“listés” frequency rank
73024
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lires listés
Definition Pluriel de lire. Participe passé masculin pluriel de lister.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lires and listés apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
lires
6 ch
listés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lires is \liʁ\ while listés is \lis.te\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73024, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lires is recorded at frequency rank #35,129, classified as anoun, pronounced \liʁ\. listés is at rank #37,895, tagged as averb, pronounced \lis.te\.

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 73024, this pair ranks #41,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lires vs listés

Shared letters: ils. Private to "lires": er. Private to "listés": .

"lires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "listés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liresilres · liers · liress · lirres · lirse · llires · lries

Frequency comparison

lires#35,129
listés#37,895

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lires" and "listés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lires" is a noun and "listés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lires" or "listés"?
"lires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,129 in our French list, against #37,895 for "listés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering lires vs listés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “lires”; for a verb, it's “listés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lires” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list