éluvsezTell them apart

Quick tell: élu is a adjective, ez is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“élu” is an adjective and “ez” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,549
“élu” frequency rank
#24,587
“ez” frequency rank
26136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature élu ez
Definition Qui a été élu. Dans les ; en les.

Letter map: élu vs ez

Shared letters muted; letters that set élu and ez apart highlighted. No shared letter run. élu runs 3 letters (VCV) against ez's 2 (VC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
élu
2 ch
ez

Part-of-speech tell for élu / ez

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: élu is anadjective and ezapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

élu is recorded at frequency rank #1,549, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.ly\. ez is at rank #24,587, tagged as aprep.

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 26136, this pair ranks #336,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of élu vs ez

Shared letters: none. Private to "élu": lué. Private to "ez": ez.

"élu" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ez" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "élu" for "ez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "élu" is an adjective and "ez" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "élu" vs "ez" - which ranks higher?
"élu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,549 in our French list, against #24,587 for "ez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "élu" and "ez".

  • Full dictionary entry for "élu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #336,916 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "élu" and "ez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "EPO vs ez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #336,916 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