ia vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ia” is an intj and “is” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,056
“ia” frequency rank: #478
“is” frequency rank: 26534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ia	is
Definition	besonderer Tierlaut des Esels	[1] umgangssprachlich, dialektal, norddeutsch: 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein

Where the eye mixes ia and is

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

Visual trap between ia and is

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ia is [iːˈʔaː] while is is [ɪs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “ia” becomes s in “is”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ia is recorded at frequency rank #26,056, classified as anintj, pronounced [iːˈʔaː]. is is at rank #478, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɪs].

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 26534, this pair ranks #1,816,546 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ia vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "ia": a. Private to "is": s.

"ia" · 2 letters · shape VV · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ia" and "is" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ia" is an intj and "is" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "ia" or "is" show up more?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #478 in our German list, against #26,056 for "ia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "ia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "is" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,816,546 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ia" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ia vs IMs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,816,546 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.