Which to use
“ell” and “elles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,057
- “ell” frequency rank
- #176
- “elles” frequency rank
- 49233
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ell | elles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | il | Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du pluriel féminin sujet, pour parler d’un groupe de femmes, d’animaux ou de choses grammaticalement féminines. |
Where the eye mixes ell and elles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ell runs 3 letters (VCC) against elles's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ell vs elles
A purely visual mix-up. ell (\ˈeʎ\) and elles (\ɛl\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “ell” sits inside “elles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ell is recorded at frequency rank #49,057, classified as apron, pronounced \ˈeʎ\. elles is at rank #176, tagged as apron, pronounced \ɛl\.
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 49233, this pair ranks #172,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ell vs elles
Shared letters: el. Private to "ell": -. Private to "elles": s.
"ell" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "elles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- elles ← elels · eles · elless · ellse · leles
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ell" and "elles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ell" or "elles"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ell" and "elles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ell" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "elles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ell" and "elles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ell 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 #172,310 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.