ale vs at, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ale” and “at” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,879
“ale” frequency rank: #4,122
“at” frequency rank: 30001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ale	at
Definition	Bière blonde anglaise légère, fabriquée avec du malt peu torréfié.	Ancien nom de l’attier, qui a peut-être été importé à la Réunion par les Malbars et les Tamouls ; ce nom était particulièrement fréquent au Sénégal.

Where the eye mixes ale and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

ale

2 ch

Why the eye confuses ale with at

A purely visual mix-up. ale (\al\) and at (\at\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ale is recorded at frequency rank #25,879, classified as anoun, pronounced \al\. at is at rank #4,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced \at\.

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 30001, this pair ranks #313,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ale vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "ale": el. Private to "at": t.

"ale" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ale" for "at" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\al\ versus \at\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "ale" or "at"?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,122 in our French list, against #25,879 for "ale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "ale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #313,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ale" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ale vs aves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #313,120 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.