ilesvsîlotsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,699
“iles” frequency rank
#21,828
“îlots” frequency rank
36527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature iles îlots
Definition Parties latérales et inférieures du bas-ventre. Pluriel de îlot.

Where the eye mixes iles and îlots

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. iles runs 4 letters (VCVC) against îlots's 5 (VCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
iles
5 ch
îlots

Look-alike desk: iles vs îlots

A purely visual mix-up. iles (\i.lɛs\) and îlots (\i.lo\) 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 36527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

iles is recorded at frequency rank #14,699, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.lɛs\. îlots is at rank #21,828, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.lo\.

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 36527, this pair ranks #268,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of iles vs îlots

Shared letters: ls. Private to "iles": ei. Private to "îlots": otî.

"iles" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "îlots" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • iles ← iels · iless · illes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "iles" and "îlots" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\i.lɛs\ versus \i.lo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "iles" or "îlots"?
"iles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,699 in our French list, against #21,828 for "îlots". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "iles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "îlots" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,984 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "iles" and "îlots" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ilona vs îlots". 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 #268,984 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