élitvseutTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,669
“élit” frequency rank
#2,421
“eut” frequency rank
30090
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature élit eut
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de élire. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe avoir.

Where the eye mixes élit and eut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
élit
3 ch
eut

Why the eye confuses élit with eut

A purely visual mix-up. élit (\e.li\) and eut (\y\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

élit is recorded at frequency rank #27,669, classified as averb, pronounced \e.li\. eut is at rank #2,421, tagged as averb, pronounced \y\.

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 30090, this pair ranks #312,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of élit vs eut

Shared letters: t. Private to "élit": ilé. Private to "eut": eu.

"élit" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "eut" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "élit" and "eut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.li\ versus \y\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "élit" or "eut" show up more?
"eut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,421 in our French list, against #27,669 for "élit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "élit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #312,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "élit" and "eut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "edito vs élit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #312,538 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