allaivsalléesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: allai is a verb, allées is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“allai” is a verb and “allées” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,638
“allai” frequency rank
#10,270
“allées” frequency rank
48908
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature allai allées
Definition Première personne de l’indicatif passé simple du verbe aller. Pluriel de allée.

Same sound, different letters: allai vs allées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. allai runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against allées's 6 (VCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
allai
6 ch
allées

Homophone desk: allai vs allées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: allai and allées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

allai is recorded at frequency rank #38,638, classified as averb, pronounced \a.le\. allées is at rank #10,270, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.le\.

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 48908, this pair ranks #175,078 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of allai vs allées

Shared letters: al. Private to "allai": i. Private to "allées": esé.

"allai" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "allées" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "allai" and "allées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "allai" is a verb and "allées" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "allai" or "allées" show up more?
"allées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,270 in our French list, against #38,638 for "allai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "allai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "allées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,078 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "allai" and "allées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "allai vs allain". 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 #175,078 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