Which to use
“ils” is a pronoun and “ions” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #54
- “ils” frequency rank
- #17,978
- “ions” frequency rank
- 18032
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ils | ions |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pluriel de ion. |
Where the eye mixes ils and ions
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ils vs ions
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ils is \il\ while ions is \jɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ils is recorded at frequency rank #54, classified as apron, pronounced \il\. ions is at rank #17,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced \jɔ̃\.
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 18032, this pair ranks #380,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ils vs ions
Shared letters: is. Private to "ils": l. Private to "ions": no.
"ils" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "ions" · 4 letters · shape VVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ions ← inos · ionns · ionss · iosn · oins
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ils" for "ions" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ils" vs "ions" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ils" and "ions" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ils" and "ions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ilona vs ions". 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 #380,311 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.