ekvsexoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ek is a pronoun, exo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ek” is a pronoun and “exo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,851
“ek” frequency rank
#29,769
“exo” frequency rank
72620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ek exo
Definition Pronom personnel sujet de la première personne du singulier : je. Exercice.

Where the eye mixes ek and exo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. ek runs 2 letters (VC) against exo's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

2 ch
ek
3 ch
exo

Visual trap between ek and exo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ek is \ɛk\ while exo is \ɛɡ.zo\. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ek is recorded at frequency rank #42,851, classified as apron, pronounced \ɛk\. exo is at rank #29,769, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zo\.

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 72620, this pair ranks #43,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ek vs exo

Shared letters: e. Private to "ek": k. Private to "exo": ox.

"ek" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "exo" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ek" and "exo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ek" is a pronoun and "exo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ek" or "exo" show up more?
"exo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,769 in our French list, against #42,851 for "ek". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ek" and "exo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ek vs EPO". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #43,364 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