Which to use
“elles” is a pronoun and “els” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #176
- “elles” frequency rank
- #33,668
- “els” frequency rank
- 33844
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | elles | els |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du pluriel féminin sujet, pour parler d’un groupe de femmes, d’animaux ou de choses grammaticalement féminines. | Pluriel de el. |
Same sound, different letters: elles vs els
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. elles runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against els's 3 (VCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: elles vs els
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: elles and els carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is apronoun, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
elles is recorded at frequency rank #176, classified as apron, pronounced \ɛl\. els is at rank #33,668, tagged as anoun, 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 33844, this pair ranks #287,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of elles vs els
Shared letters: els. Private to "elles": -. Private to "els": -.
"elles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "els" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- elles ← elels · eles · elless · ellse · leles
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "elles" and "els" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "elles" vs "els" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "elles" / "els". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "elles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "els" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #287,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "elles" and "els" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "els 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 #287,897 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.