luivsluzWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#68
“lui” frequency rank
#21,684
“luz” frequency rank
21752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lui luz
Definition Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du singulier épicène du complément d’objet indirect. Lumière.

Where the eye mixes lui and luz

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

3 ch
lui
3 ch
luz

Why the eye confuses lui with luz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lui is \lɥi\ while luz is \ˈluθ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “lui” becomes z in “luz”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lui is recorded at frequency rank #68, classified as apron, pronounced \lɥi\. luz is at rank #21,684, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈluθ\.

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 21752, this pair ranks #361,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lui vs luz

Shared letters: lu. Private to "lui": i. Private to "luz": z.

"lui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "luz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lui" and "luz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lui" is a pronoun and "luz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lui" or "luz"?
"lui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #68 in our French list, against #21,684 for "luz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lui" and "luz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #361,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lui" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs luz". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #361,596 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