echovselloWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,839
“echo” frequency rank
#400
“ello” frequency rank
4239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature echo ello
Definition Palabra clave radiofónica del ICAO y NATO para la letra E. Nominativo del pronombre personal de tercera persona en género neutro. Con preposición, empléase también en el caso oblicuo (o preposicional).

Where the eye mixes echo and ello

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

4 ch
echo
4 ch
ello

Visual trap between echo and ello

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: echo is [ˈɛko] while ello is [ˈeʝo]. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

echo is recorded at frequency rank #3,839, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛko]. ello is at rank #400, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈeʝo].

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 4239, this pair ranks #316,547 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of echo vs ello

Shared letters: eo. Private to "echo": ch. Private to "ello": l.

"echo" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "ello" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • echoceho · eccho · echho · ecoh · ehco
  • elloelol · lelo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "echo" for "ello" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "echo" is a noun and "ello" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "echo" or "ello" show up more?
"ello" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #400 in our Spanish list, against #3,839 for "echo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "echo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ello" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #316,547 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "echo" and "ello" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ello vs EPL". 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 #316,547 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list