allôvsalsTell them apart

Quick tell: allô is a intj, als is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“allô” is an intj and “als” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,439
“allô” frequency rank
#23,096
“als” frequency rank
42535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature allô als
Definition Mot phatique employé pour établir ou rétablir la conversation téléphonique avec son interlocuteur. Pronom de la troisième personne du singulier utilisé pour parler de plusieurs personnes peu importe(nt) leur(s) genre(s).

Where the eye mixes allô and als

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
allô
3 ch
als

Visual trap between allô and als

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: allô is \a.lo\ while als is \al\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

allô is recorded at frequency rank #19,439, classified as anintj, pronounced \a.lo\. als is at rank #23,096, tagged as apron, pronounced \al\.

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 42535, this pair ranks #224,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of allô vs als

Shared letters: al. Private to "allô": ô. Private to "als": s.

"allô" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "als" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "allô" for "als" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "allô" is an intj and "als" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "allô" or "als" show up more?
"allô" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,439 in our French list, against #23,096 for "als". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "allô" and "als" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "allô" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "als" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "allô" and "als" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "als vs aves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #224,864 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