ihmvsissWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ihm is a pronoun, iss is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ihm” is a pronoun and “iss” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#137
“ihm” frequency rank
#6,551
“iss” frequency rank
6688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ihm iss
Definition Personalpronomen 3. Person Maskulinum Singular Dativ 2. Person Singular Imperativ des Verbs essen

Where the eye mixes ihm and iss

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

3 ch
ihm
3 ch
iss

Look-alike desk: ihm vs iss

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ihm is [iːm] while iss is [ɪs]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ihm is recorded at frequency rank #137, classified as apron, pronounced [iːm]. iss is at rank #6,551, 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 6688, this pair ranks #1,990,773 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ihm vs iss

Shared letters: i. Private to "ihm": hm. Private to "iss": s.

"ihm" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "iss" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ihm" and "iss" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ihm" is a pronoun and "iss" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ihm" vs "iss" - which ranks higher?
"ihm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #137 in our German list, against #6,551 for "iss". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ihm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "iss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,990,773 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ihm" and "iss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IMs vs iss". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,990,773 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list