Which to use
“aillent” and “ailles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,955
- “aillent” frequency rank
- #25,192
- “ailles” frequency rank
- 39147
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aillent | ailles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du subjonctif présent du verbe aller. | Deuxième personne du singulier du subjonctif présent du verbe aller. |
Same sound, different letters: aillent vs ailles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. aillent runs 7 letters (VVCCVCC) against ailles's 6 (VVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: aillent vs ailles
This is the hard kind. aillent 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aillent is recorded at frequency rank #13,955, 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 39147, this pair ranks #250,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of aillent vs ailles
Shared letters: aeil. Private to "aillent": nt. Private to "ailles": s.
"aillent" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCC · "ailles" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "aillent" and "ailles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "aillent" or "ailles"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "aillent" / "ailles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "aillent" 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 #250,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aillent" 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 #250,137 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.