louervslouveWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,955
“louer” frequency rank
#27,509
“louve” frequency rank
32464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature louer louve
Definition Donner à louage ou à loyer. Loup femelle.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set louer and louve apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
louer
5 ch
louve

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: louer is \lwe\ while louve is \luv\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

louer is recorded at frequency rank #4,955, classified as averb, pronounced \lwe\. louve is at rank #27,509, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luv\.

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 32464, this pair ranks #297,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of louer vs louve

Shared letters: elou. Private to "louer": r. Private to "louve": v.

"louer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "louve" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • louerllouer · loeur · louerr · loure · luoer · oluer
  • louvellouve · louev · louvve · lovue · luove · oluve

Frequency comparison

louer#4,955
louve#27,509

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "louer" and "louve" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "louer" is a verb and "louve" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "louer" or "louve"?
"louer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,955 in our French list, against #27,509 for "louve". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering louer vs louve

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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