ele vs être, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ele” is a pronoun and “être” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38
“ele” frequency rank: #48,731
“être” frequency rank: 48769
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ele	être
Definition	pronome pessoal da terceira pessoa do singular	ser vivo

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch

ele

4 ch

être

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ele is /ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/ while être is /ɛtʁ/. 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 48769, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ele is recorded at frequency rank #38, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/. être is at rank #48,731, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɛtʁ/.

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 48769, this pair ranks #16,378 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ele vs être

Shared letters: e. Private to "ele": l. Private to "être": rtê.

"ele" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "être" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Frequency comparison

ele#38

être#48,731

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ele" and "être" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ele" is a pronoun and "être" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ele" or "être"?

"ele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38 in our Portuguese list, against #48,731 for "être". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering ele vs être

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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