allégervsallègueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,865
“alléger” frequency rank
#44,292
“allègue” frequency rank
62157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alléger allègue
Definition Soulager d’une partie d’un fardeau. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe alléguer.

Where the eye mixes alléger and allègue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
alléger
7 ch
allègue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. alléger (\a(l).le.ʒe\) and allègue (\a.lɛɡ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alléger is recorded at frequency rank #17,865, classified as averb, pronounced \a(l).le.ʒe\. allègue is at rank #44,292, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.lɛɡ\.

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 62157, this pair ranks #88,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alléger vs allègue

Shared letters: aegl. Private to "alléger": . Private to "allègue": .

"alléger" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "allègue" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alléger" and "allègue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a(l).le.ʒe\ versus \a.lɛɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alléger" or "allègue"?
"alléger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,865 in our French list, against #44,292 for "allègue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list