ilevsIlseConfusable pair

Quick tell: ile is a noun, Ilse is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ile” is a noun and “Ilse” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,983
“ile” frequency rank
#14,836
“Ilse” frequency rank
63819
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ile Ilse
Definition Haar n weiblicher Vorname

Letter map: ile vs Ilse

Shared letters muted; letters that set ile and Ilse apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ile runs 3 letters (VCV) against Ilse's 4 (VCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ile
4 ch
Ilse

Part-of-speech tell for ile / Ilse

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ile is anoun and Ilseaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63819, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ile is recorded at frequency rank #48,983, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Ilse is at rank #14,836, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈɪlzə].

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 63819, this pair ranks #663,205 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ile vs Ilse

Shared letters: eil. Private to "ile": -. Private to "Ilse": s.

"ile" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "Ilse" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ilse ← illse · ilsse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ile" and "Ilse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ile" is a noun and "Ilse" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ile" vs "Ilse" - which ranks higher?
"Ilse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,836 in our German list, against #48,983 for "ile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ile" and "Ilse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ilse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #663,205 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ile" and "Ilse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ile vs puzzles". 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 #663,205 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list