litrevslivraWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#9,189
“litre” frequency rank
#45,712
“livra” frequency rank
54901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature litre livra
Definition Unité de capacité du système métrique égale à un décimètre cube (dm³), couramment employé pour mesurer les volumes. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de livrer.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
litre
5 ch
livra

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: litre is \litʁ\ while livra is \li.vʁa\. 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 54901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

litre is recorded at frequency rank #9,189, classified as anoun, pronounced \litʁ\. livra is at rank #45,712, tagged as averb, pronounced \li.vʁa\.

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 54901, this pair ranks #130,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of litre vs livra

Shared letters: ilr. Private to "litre": et. Private to "livra": av.

"litre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "livra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • litreiltre · lirte · liter · litrre · littre · llitre · ltire
  • livrailvra · lirva · livar · livrra · livvra · llivra · lvira

Frequency comparison

litre#9,189
livra#45,712

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "litre" and "livra" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "litre" is a noun and "livra" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "litre" or "livra"?
"litre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,189 in our French list, against #45,712 for "livra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering litre vs livra

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “litre”; for a verb, it's “livra”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “litre” 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