Which to use
“ela” is a noun and “esta” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,314
- “ela” frequency rank
- #38,787
- “esta” frequency rank
- 86101
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ela | esta |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Activité de loisir, amateur, loisir. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe ester. |
Where the eye mixes ela and esta
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ela runs 3 letters (VCV) against esta's 4 (VCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ela vs esta
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ela is \ˈɛla\ while esta is \ɛs.ta\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ela is recorded at frequency rank #47,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɛla\. esta is at rank #38,787, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛs.ta\.
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 86101, this pair ranks #10,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ela vs esta
Shared letters: ae. Private to "ela": l. Private to "esta": st.
"ela" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "esta" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- esta ← essta · estta · etsa
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ela" and "esta" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "ela" vs "esta" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "esta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ela" and "esta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ela vs EPO". 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 #10,225 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.