Which to use
“ile” is a noun and “ime” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,925
- “ile” frequency rank
- #49,145
- “ime” frequency rank
- 53070
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ile | ime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espace de terre entouré d’eau de tous côtés. | Ma, mon. |
Where the eye mixes ile and ime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ile and ime follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses ile with ime
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ile is \il\ while ime is \ˈi.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “ile” becomes m in “ime”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ile is recorded at frequency rank #3,925, classified as anoun, pronounced \il\. ime is at rank #49,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈi.me\.
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 53070, this pair ranks #143,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ile vs ime
Shared letters: ei. Private to "ile": l. Private to "ime": m.
"ile" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ime" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ile" and "ime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ile" or "ime" show up more?
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 "ile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #143,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ile" and "ime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs isi". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #143,297 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.