LoupvsluiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Loup is a name, lui is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Loup” is a name and “lui” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,409
“Loup” frequency rank
#68
“lui” frequency rank
3477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Loup lui
Definition Constellation du ciel austral, bordée par la Balance, le Centaure, le Compas, la Règle et le Scorpion. Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du singulier épicène du complément d’objet indirect.

Where the eye mixes Loup and lui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Loup
3 ch
lui

Look-alike desk: Loup vs lui

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Loup is \lu\ while lui is \lɥi\. 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 (name vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Loup is recorded at frequency rank #3,409, classified as aname, pronounced \lu\. lui is at rank #68, tagged as apron, pronounced \lɥi\.

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 3477, this pair ranks #433,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Loup vs lui

Shared letters: lu. Private to "Loup": op. Private to "lui": i.

"Loup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Louplloup · lopu · loupp · luop · olup

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Loup" and "lui" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Loup" is a name and "lui" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Loup" vs "lui" - which ranks higher?
"lui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #68 in our French list, against #3,409 for "Loup". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Loup" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #433,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Loup" and "lui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs Loup". 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 #433,927 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