ilavsilsTell them apart

Quick tell: ila is a noun, ils is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ila” is a noun and “ils” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,433
“ila” frequency rank
#54
“ils” frequency rank
36487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ila ils
Definition Langue bantoue parlée en Zambie. 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.

Letter map: ila vs ils

Shared letters muted; letters that set ila and ils apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ila
3 ch
ils

Part-of-speech tell for ila / ils

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ila is anoun and ilsapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “ila” becomes s in “ils”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ila is recorded at frequency rank #36,433, classified as anoun. 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 36487, this pair ranks #269,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ila vs ils

Shared letters: il. Private to "ila": a. Private to "ils": s.

"ila" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ils" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ila" and "ils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ila" is a noun and "ils" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ila" vs "ils" - which ranks higher?
"ils" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #54 in our French list, against #36,433 for "ila". 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 "ila" and "ils".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ila" 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 #269,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ila" and "ils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ila vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #269,235 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