allégervsallerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,865
“alléger” frequency rank
#201
“aller” frequency rank
18066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alléger aller
Definition Soulager d’une partie d’un fardeau. Se déplacer jusqu'à un endroit.

Where the eye mixes alléger and aller

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

7 ch
alléger
5 ch
aller

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. alléger (\a(l).le.ʒe\) and aller (\a.le\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18066, 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\. aller is at rank #201, tagged as averb, 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 18066, this pair ranks #380,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of alléger vs aller

Shared letters: aelr. Private to "alléger": . Private to "aller": -.

"alléger" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "aller" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alleralelr · aler · allerr · allre · laler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alléger" and "aller" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a(l).le.ʒe\ versus \a.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alléger" or "aller"?
"aller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #201 in our French list, against #17,865 for "alléger". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list