Which to use
“elfe” and “elfes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,552
- “elfe” frequency rank
- #18,734
- “elfes” frequency rank
- 41286
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | elfe | elfes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Génie de l’air, dans la mythologie scandinave. | Pluriel de elfe. |
Same sound, different letters: elfe vs elfes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - elfe and elfes
This is the hard kind. elfe and elfes are pronounced identically (\ɛlf\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “elfe” sits inside “elfes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
elfe is recorded at frequency rank #22,552, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛlf\. elfes is at rank #18,734, 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 41286, this pair ranks #234,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of elfe vs elfes
Shared letters: efl. Private to "elfe": -. Private to "elfes": s.
"elfe" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "elfes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "elfe" for "elfes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "elfe" vs "elfes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"elfe" and "elfes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "elfe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "elfes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "elfe" and "elfes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elfe vs ell". 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 #234,233 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.