ilesvsitemsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,699
“iles” frequency rank
#25,024
“items” frequency rank
39723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature iles items
Definition Parties latérales et inférieures du bas-ventre. Pluriel de item.

Where the eye mixes iles and items

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
iles
5 ch
items

Visual trap between iles and items

A purely visual mix-up. iles (\i.lɛs\) and items (\i.tɛm\) 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 39723, 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\. items is at rank #25,024, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.tɛm\.

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 39723, this pair ranks #245,861 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of iles vs items

Shared letters: eis. Private to "iles": l. Private to "items": mt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ilesiels · iless · illes
  • itemsietms · itemms · itemss · itesm · ittems

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "iles" for "items" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\i.lɛs\ versus \i.tɛm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "iles" or "items"?
"iles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,699 in our French list, against #25,024 for "items". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "iles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "items" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #245,861 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "iles" and "items" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "items 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 #245,861 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