aliensvsalinéasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,735
“aliens” frequency rank
#40,590
“alinéas” frequency rank
60325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aliens alinéas
Definition Pluriel de alien. Pluriel de alinéa.

Where the eye mixes aliens and alinéas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. aliens runs 6 letters (VCVVCC) against alinéas's 7 (VCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
aliens
7 ch
alinéas

Look-alike desk: aliens vs alinéas

A purely visual mix-up. aliens (\a.ljɛn\) and alinéas (\a.li.ne.a\) 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 60325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aliens is recorded at frequency rank #19,735, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ljɛn\. alinéas is at rank #40,590, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.li.ne.a\.

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 60325, this pair ranks #98,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aliens vs alinéas

Shared letters: ailns. Private to "aliens": e. Private to "alinéas": é.

"aliens" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC  ·  "alinéas" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aliens ← ailens · aleins · alienns · alienss · aliesn · alines · alliens · laiens

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aliens" for "alinéas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ljɛn\ versus \a.li.ne.a\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aliens" or "alinéas"?
"aliens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,735 in our French list, against #40,590 for "alinéas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aliens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alinéas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aliens" and "alinéas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alina vs alinéas". 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 #98,199 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list