ihrvsIPAWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ihr is a pronoun, IPA is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ihr” is a pronoun and “IPA” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#72
“ihr” frequency rank
#43,994
“IPA” frequency rank
44066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ihr IPA
Definition 2. Person Plural Internationales Phonetisches Alphabet

Where the eye mixes ihr and IPA

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

3 ch
ihr
3 ch
IPA

Why the eye confuses ihr with IPA

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ihr is [iːɐ̯] while IPA is [ˌiːpeːˈʔaː]. 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 abbrev), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ihr is recorded at frequency rank #72, classified as apron, pronounced [iːɐ̯]. IPA is at rank #43,994, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [ˌiːpeːˈʔaː].

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 44066, this pair ranks #1,398,131 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ihr vs IPA

Shared letters: i. Private to "ihr": hr. Private to "IPA": ap.

"ihr" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "IPA" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ihr" for "IPA" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ihr" is a pronoun and "IPA" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ihr" or "IPA"?
"ihr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #72 in our German list, against #43,994 for "IPA". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ihr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "IPA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,398,131 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ihr" and "IPA" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IMs vs IPA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,398,131 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