elevselleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,351
“ele” frequency rank
#23,767
“elle” frequency rank
52118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ele elle
Definition Nombre de la letra L (duodécima letra del alfabeto). Nombre del dígrafo ll.

Where the eye mixes ele and elle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ele
4 ch
elle

Why the eye confuses ele with elle

A purely visual mix-up. ele ([ˈele]) and elle ([ˈeʝe]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ele is recorded at frequency rank #28,351, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈele]. elle is at rank #23,767, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈeʝe].

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 52118, this pair ranks #94,269 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ele vs elle

Shared letters: el. Private to "ele": -. Private to "elle": -.

"ele" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "elle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • elleelel · lele

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ele" for "elle" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈele] versus [ˈeʝe]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ele" or "elle"?
"elle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,767 in our Spanish list, against #28,351 for "ele". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "elle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,269 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ele" and "elle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ele 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 #94,269 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