IhrevsisleConfusable pair

Quick tell: Ihre is a unknown, isle is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ihre” is an unknown and “isle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#92
“Ihre” frequency rank
#41,260
“isle” frequency rank
41352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ihre isle
Definition Nominativ Singular femininum des Possessivpronomens Ihr die Insel oder kleine Insel

Where the eye mixes Ihre and isle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Ihre and isle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Ihre
4 ch
isle

Why the eye confuses Ihre with isle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ihre is [ˈiːʁə] while isle is [aɪl]. 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 (unknown vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ihre is recorded at frequency rank #92, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈiːʁə]. isle is at rank #41,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aɪl].

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 41352, this pair ranks #1,482,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ihre vs isle

Shared letters: ei. Private to "Ihre": hr. Private to "isle": ls.

"Ihre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "isle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ihre ← ihhre · ihrre · irhe
  • isle ← isel · islle · issle · sile

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ihre" and "isle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ihre" is an unknown and "isle" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ihre" or "isle"?
"Ihre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #92 in our German list, against #41,260 for "isle". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ihre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,482,018 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ihre" and "isle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ile vs isle". 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 #1,482,018 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