Which to use
“il” is a pronoun and “ill” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18
- “il” frequency rank
- #15,649
- “ill” frequency rank
- 15667
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | il | ill |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom de la troisième personne du singulier masculin (utilisé exclusivement en tant que sujet). Désigne une personne, un animal ou une chose dont le genre est masculin. | Malade, malsain. |
Where the eye mixes il and ill
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: il is \il\ while ill is \ˈɪl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “il” sits inside “ill”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
il is recorded at frequency rank #18, classified as apron, pronounced \il\. ill is at rank #15,649, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈɪl\.
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 15667, this pair ranks #391,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of il vs ill
Shared letters: il. Private to "il": -. Private to "ill": -.
"il" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ill" · 3 letters · shape VCC