ek vs él, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ek” and “él” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,574
“ek” frequency rank: #142
“él” frequency rank: 37716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ek	él
Definition	Yo.	Nominativo y preposicional del pronombre personal de la tercera persona del singular en el género masculino.

Where the eye mixes ek and él

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. No shared run - shape, not overlap, is the trap.

2 ch

él

Look-alike desk: ek vs él

A purely visual mix-up. ek ([ɛk]) and él ([ˈel]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ek is recorded at frequency rank #37,574, classified as apron, pronounced [ɛk]. él is at rank #142, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈel].

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 37716, this pair ranks #173,842 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ek vs él

Shared letters: none. Private to "ek": ek. Private to "él": lé.

"ek" · 2 letters · shape VC · "él" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ek" and "él" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently ([ɛk] versus [ˈel]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "ek" or "él"?

"él" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #142 in our Spanish list, against #37,574 for "ek". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "ek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "él" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #173,842 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ek" and "él" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ek vs EPL". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #173,842 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.