Which to use
“aille” and “aillent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,432
- “aille” frequency rank
- #13,955
- “aillent” frequency rank
- 17387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aille | aillent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du subjonctif présent de aller. | Troisième personne du pluriel du subjonctif présent du verbe aller. |
Same sound, different letters: aille vs aillent
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. aille runs 5 letters (VVCCV) against aillent's 7 (VVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: aille vs aillent
This is the hard kind. aille and aillent are pronounced identically (\aj\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “aille” sits inside “aillent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aille is recorded at frequency rank #3,432, classified as averb, pronounced \aj\. aillent is at rank #13,955, tagged as averb, pronounced \aj\.
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 17387, this pair ranks #383,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of aille vs aillent
Shared letters: aeil. Private to "aille": -. Private to "aillent": nt.
"aille" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV · "aillent" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "aille" and "aillent" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "aille" or "aillent" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "aille" / "aillent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "aille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aillent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aille" and "aillent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aillent vs avalent". 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 #383,429 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.