Which to use
“ies” is a noun and “ils” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,358
- “ies” frequency rank
- #54
- “ils” frequency rank
- 25412
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ies | ils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de ie. | Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du pluriel sujet, quand on parle d’un groupe d’hommes et de femmes ou de choses grammaticalement masculines et féminines. |
Where the eye mixes ies and ils
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ies and ils
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ies is \je\ while ils is \il\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “ies” becomes l in “ils”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ies is recorded at frequency rank #25,358, classified as anoun, pronounced \je\. ils is at rank #54, tagged as apron, 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 25412, this pair ranks #341,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ies vs ils
Shared letters: is. Private to "ies": e. Private to "ils": l.
"ies" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "ils" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ies" and "ils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ies" or "ils" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #341,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ies" and "ils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ies vs isi". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #341,027 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.