élirevsérigeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,392
“élire” frequency rank
#35,347
“érige” frequency rank
42739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature élire érige
Definition Choisir entre plusieurs personnes ou plusieurs choses. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de ériger.

Where the eye mixes élire and érige

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. élire and érige follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
élire
5 ch
érige

Visual trap between élire and érige

A purely visual mix-up. élire (\e.liʁ\) and érige (\e.ʁiʒ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

élire is recorded at frequency rank #7,392, classified as averb, pronounced \e.liʁ\. érige is at rank #35,347, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ʁiʒ\.

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 42739, this pair ranks #223,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of élire vs érige

Shared letters: eiré. Private to "élire": l. Private to "érige": g.

"élire" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "érige" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "élire" for "érige" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.liʁ\ versus \e.ʁiʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "élire" or "érige" show up more?
"élire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,392 in our French list, against #35,347 for "érige". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "élire" and "érige" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "élire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "érige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #223,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "élire" and "érige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Erick vs érige". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #223,292 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