ils vs ime, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#54
“ils” frequency rank: #49,145
“ime” frequency rank: 49199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ils	ime
Definition	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.	Ma, mon.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ils and ime apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

ils

3 ch

ime

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ils is \il\ while ime is \ˈi.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ils is recorded at frequency rank #54, classified as apron, 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 49199, this pair ranks #172,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ils vs ime

Shared letters: i. Private to "ils": ls. Private to "ime": em.

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

Frequency comparison

ils#54

ime#49,145

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ils" and "ime" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ils" is a pronoun and "ime" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ils" or "ime"?

"ils" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #54 in our French list, against #49,145 for "ime". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering ils vs ime

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “ils”; for an adjective, it's “ime”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ils” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable