ellvsellasWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#39,191
“ell” frequency rank
#606
“ellas” frequency rank
39797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ell ellas
Definition Codo; antigua medida inglesa especialmente utilizada para medir telas que equivalía a 114,3 centímetros (45 pulgadas). Nominativo del pronombre personal femenino para la tercera persona del plural.

Where the eye mixes ell and ellas

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

3 ch
ell
5 ch
ellas

Look-alike desk: ell vs ellas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ell is [eɫ] while ellas is [ˈeʝas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ell” sits inside “ellas”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ell is recorded at frequency rank #39,191, classified as anoun, pronounced [eɫ]. ellas is at rank #606, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈeʝas].

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 39797, this pair ranks #162,582 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ell vs ellas

Shared letters: el. Private to "ell": -. Private to "ellas": as.

"ell" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ellas" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ellaselals · elas · ellass · ellsa · lelas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ell" and "ellas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ell" is a noun and "ellas" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ell" vs "ellas" - which ranks higher?
"ellas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our Spanish list, against #39,191 for "ell". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ell" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ellas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,582 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ell" and "ellas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ell 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 #162,582 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