igavsilanTell them apart

Which to use

“iga” and “ilan” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,992
“iga” frequency rank
#39,343
“ilan” frequency rank
75335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature iga ilan
Definition Fondrière. Serpent.

Where the eye mixes iga and ilan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. iga runs 3 letters (VCV) against ilan's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
iga
4 ch
ilan

Visual trap between iga and ilan

A purely visual mix-up. iga ([ˈiɣo̞]) and ilan (\i.ˈlɑn\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

iga is recorded at frequency rank #35,992, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈiɣo̞]. ilan is at rank #39,343, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.ˈlɑn\.

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 75335, this pair ranks #34,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of iga vs ilan

Shared letters: ai. Private to "iga": g. Private to "ilan": ln.

"iga" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ilan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ilan ← ialn · ilann · illan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "iga" for "ilan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈiɣo̞] versus \i.ˈlɑn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "iga" vs "ilan" - which ranks higher?
"iga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,992 in our French list, against #39,343 for "ilan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "iga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ilan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "iga" and "ilan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ilan vs Ilona". 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 #34,384 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