Which to use
“ailier” is a noun and “alliés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,299
- “ailier” frequency rank
- #3,433
- “alliés” frequency rank
- 15732
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ailier | alliés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Au basket-ball, joueur qui évolue près de la ligne de touche devant, compromis entre la taille et la puissance d"un intérieur ou d'un pivot, et l"agilité et la dextérité d"un meneur ou d"un arrière. | Masculin pluriel de allié. |
Where the eye mixes ailier and alliés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ailier with alliés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ailier is \ɛ.lje\ while alliés is \a.lje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ailier is recorded at frequency rank #12,299, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.lje\. alliés is at rank #3,433, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.lje\.
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 15732, this pair ranks #391,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ailier vs alliés
Shared letters: ail. Private to "ailier": er. Private to "alliés": sé.
"ailier" · 6 letters · shape VVCVVC · "alliés" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ailier ← aiiler · aileir · ailierr · ailire · aillier · aliier · ialier
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ailier" for "alliés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ailier" vs "alliés" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ailier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alliés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ailier" and "alliés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ailier vs Augier". 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 #391,070 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.