Which to use
“ide” and “ile” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,577
- “ide” frequency rank
- #3,925
- “ile” frequency rank
- 27502
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ide | ile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poisson rouge d’eau douce. | Espace de terre entouré d’eau de tous côtés. |
Where the eye mixes ide and ile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ide and ile
A purely visual mix-up. ide (\id\) and ile (\il\) 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 a single letter - d in “ide” becomes l in “ile”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ide is recorded at frequency rank #23,577, classified as anoun, pronounced \id\. ile is at rank #3,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced \il\.
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 27502, this pair ranks #328,564 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ide vs ile
Shared letters: ei. Private to "ide": d. Private to "ile": l.
"ide" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ile" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ide" for "ile" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ide" or "ile" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ide" and "ile" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,564 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ide" and "ile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ide vs isi". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #328,564 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.