Which to use
“eft” is an adverb and “elfe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,240
- “eft” frequency rank
- #22,552
- “elfe” frequency rank
- 55792
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | eft | elfe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Encore, après, ultérieurement. | Génie de l’air, dans la mythologie scandinave. |
Where the eye mixes eft and elfe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. eft runs 3 letters (VCC) against elfe's 4 (VCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: eft vs elfe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eft is \ɛft\ while elfe is \ɛlf\. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
eft is recorded at frequency rank #33,240, classified as anadv, pronounced \ɛft\. elfe is at rank #22,552, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛlf\.
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 55792, this pair ranks #125,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of eft vs elfe
Shared letters: ef. Private to "eft": t. Private to "elfe": l.
"eft" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "elfe" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- elfe ← efle · elef · elffe · ellfe · lefe
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "eft" for "elfe" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "eft" or "elfe" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "eft" and "elfe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "eft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "elfe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,217 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "eft" and "elfe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eft vs émit". 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
Confusion rank #125,217 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.