Which to use
“él” is a pronoun and “ell” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #142
- “él” frequency rank
- #39,191
- “ell” frequency rank
- 39333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | él | ell |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativo y preposicional del pronombre personal de la tercera persona del singular en el género masculino. | Codo; antigua medida inglesa especialmente utilizada para medir telas que equivalía a 114,3 centímetros (45 pulgadas). |
Where the eye mixes él and ell
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between él and ell
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: él is [ˈel] while ell is [eɫ]. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
él is recorded at frequency rank #142, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈel]. ell is at rank #39,191, tagged as anoun, pronounced [eɫ].
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 39333, this pair ranks #165,104 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of él vs ell
Shared letters: l. Private to "él": é. Private to "ell": e.
"él" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ell" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "él" and "ell" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "él" or "ell" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "él" and "ell" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "él" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ell" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,104 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "él" and "ell" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ell vs EPL". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #165,104 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.