écolevseleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#421
“école” frequency rank
#40,239
“ele” frequency rank
40660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature école ele
Definition Lieu dédié à l’apprentissage. Parole, discours, propos.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set école and ele apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
école
3 ch
ele

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

école and ele are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

école is recorded at frequency rank #421, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kɔl\. ele is at rank #40,239, tagged as anoun.

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 40660, this pair ranks #238,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of école vs ele

Shared letters: el. Private to "école": coé. Private to "ele": -.

"école" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ele" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequency comparison

école#421
ele#40,239

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "école" and "ele" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "école" or "ele"?
"école" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #421 in our French list, against #40,239 for "ele". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering école vs ele

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “école” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list