allervsallierWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#201
“aller” frequency rank
#8,807
“allier” frequency rank
9008
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aller allier
Definition Se déplacer jusqu'à un endroit. Unir par une entente, un pacte. Ce verbe est alors généralement pronominal.

Where the eye mixes aller and allier

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

5 ch
aller
6 ch
allier

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. aller (\a.le\) and allier (\a.lje\) 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 9008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aller is recorded at frequency rank #201, classified as averb, pronounced \a.le\. allier is at rank #8,807, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.lje\.

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 9008, this pair ranks #418,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aller vs allier

Shared letters: aelr. Private to "aller": -. Private to "allier": i.

"aller" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "allier" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alleralelr · aler · allerr · allre · laler
  • allieralier · aliler · alleir · allierr · allire · lalier

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aller" and "allier" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.le\ versus \a.lje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aller" or "allier"?
"aller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #201 in our French list, against #8,807 for "allier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "aller" and "allier". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "allier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aller" and "allier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "allier vs Augier". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list