ellevselsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: elle is a noun, els is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“elle” is a noun and “els” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,767
“elle” frequency rank
#25,615
“els” frequency rank
49382
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature elle els
Definition Nombre del dígrafo ll. Grafía obsoleta de else.

Letter map: elle vs els

Shared letters muted; letters that set elle and els apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
elle
3 ch
els

Grammar separator: elle vs els

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: elle is anoun and elsanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

elle is recorded at frequency rank #23,767, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈeʝe]. els is at rank #25,615, tagged as anadv.

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 49382, this pair ranks #109,177 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of elle vs els

Shared letters: el. Private to "elle": -. Private to "els": s.

"elle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "els" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • elleelel · lele

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "elle" and "els" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "elle" is a noun and "els" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "elle" or "els" show up more?
"elle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,767 in our Spanish list, against #25,615 for "els". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "elle" vs "els" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "elle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "els" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,177 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "elle" and "els" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "els 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 #109,177 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