Which to use
“long” is an adjective and “lou” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #401
- “long” frequency rank
- #7,204
- “lou” frequency rank
- 7605
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | long | lou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qualifie des objets considérés dans leur dimension d’une extrémité à l’autre, par opposition à court. | Loup. |
Where the eye mixes long and lou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between long and lou
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: long is \lɔ̃\ while lou is \lu\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7605, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
long is recorded at frequency rank #401, classified as anadj, pronounced \lɔ̃\. lou is at rank #7,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lu\.
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 7605, this pair ranks #422,661 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of long vs lou
Shared letters: lo. Private to "long": gn. Private to "lou": u.
"long" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- long ← llong · lnog · logn · longg · lonng · olng
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "long" and "lou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "long" vs "lou" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "long" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,661 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "long" and "lou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs lou". 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 #422,661 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.