Which to use
“alla” is a verb and “allô” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,986
- “alla” frequency rank
- #19,439
- “allô” frequency rank
- 30425
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alla | allô |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif passé simple du verbe aller. | Mot phatique employé pour établir ou rétablir la conversation téléphonique avec son interlocuteur. |
Where the eye mixes alla and allô
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses alla with allô
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alla is \a.la\ while allô is \a.lo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “alla” becomes ô in “allô”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
alla is recorded at frequency rank #10,986, classified as averb, pronounced \a.la\. allô is at rank #19,439, tagged as anintj, pronounced \a.lo\.
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 30425, this pair ranks #310,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of alla vs allô
Shared letters: al. Private to "alla": -. Private to "allô": ô.
"alla" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "allô" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- alla ← alal
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "alla" for "allô" ever safe?
Which is more common, "alla" or "allô"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "alla" and "allô" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "alla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "allô" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #310,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alla" and "allô" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "allô vs aol". 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 #310,404 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.