Which to use
“ellos” is a pronoun and “els” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #121
- “ellos” frequency rank
- #25,615
- “els” frequency rank
- 25736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ellos | els |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativo y dativo del pronombre personal de la tercera persona del plural. Con preposición, se emplea también en los casos oblicuos. | Grafía obsoleta de else. |
Letter map: ellos vs els
Shared letters muted; letters that set ellos and els apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Role in the sentence - ellos and els
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ellos is apronoun and elsanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ellos is recorded at frequency rank #121, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈeʝos]. 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 25736, this pair ranks #235,046 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ellos vs els
Shared letters: els. Private to "ellos": o. Private to "els": -.
"ellos" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "els" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ellos ← elloss · ellso · elols · elos · lelos
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ellos" for "els" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ellos" or "els" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ellos" and "els".
- Full dictionary entry for "ellos" 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 #235,046 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ellos" 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 #235,046 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.