Which to use
“aille” and “ailles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,432
- “aille” frequency rank
- #25,192
- “ailles” frequency rank
- 28624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aille | ailles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du subjonctif présent de aller. | Deuxième personne du singulier du subjonctif présent du verbe aller. |
Same sound, different letters: aille vs ailles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. aille runs 5 letters (VVCCV) against ailles's 6 (VVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - aille / ailles
This is the hard kind. aille and ailles 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 1 extra letter(s) - “aille” sits inside “ailles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28624, 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\. ailles is at rank #25,192, 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 28624, this pair ranks #321,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of aille vs ailles
Shared letters: aeil. Private to "aille": -. Private to "ailles": s.
"aille" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV · "ailles" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "aille" and "ailles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "aille" or "ailles" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "aille" / "ailles". 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 "ailles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aille" and "ailles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ailles vs ainés". 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 #321,664 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.