ilesvsislesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,699
“iles” frequency rank
#36,912
“isles” frequency rank
51611
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature iles isles
Definition Parties latérales et inférieures du bas-ventre. Pluriel de isle.

Where the eye mixes iles and isles

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

4 ch
iles
5 ch
isles

Look-alike desk: iles vs isles

A purely visual mix-up. iles (\i.lɛs\) and isles (\il\) 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 51611, 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\. isles is at rank #36,912, tagged as anoun, 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 51611, this pair ranks #153,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of iles vs isles

Shared letters: eils. Private to "iles": -. Private to "isles": -.

"iles" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "isles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • iles ← iels · iless · illes
  • isles ← ilses · isels · isless · islles · islse · issles · siles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "iles" and "isles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\i.lɛs\ versus \il\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "iles" vs "isles" - which ranks higher?
"iles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,699 in our French list, against #36,912 for "isles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "iles" and "isles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "iles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "iles" and "isles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isles vs ives". 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 #153,729 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