ile vs ill, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ile” is a noun and “ill” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,983
“ile” frequency rank: #25,175
“ill” frequency rank: 74158
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ile	ill
Definition	Haar n	schlecht, falsch

Letter map: ile vs ill

Shared letters muted; letters that set ile and ill apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. ile (VCV) and ill (VCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch

ile

3 ch

ill

Role in the sentence - ile and ill

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ile is anoun and illanadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “ile” becomes l in “ill”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74158, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ile is recorded at frequency rank #48,983, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. ill is at rank #25,175, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ɪl].

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 74158, this pair ranks #340,891 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ile vs ill

Shared letters: il. Private to "ile": e. Private to "ill": -.

"ile" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ill" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ile" and "ill" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ile" is a noun and "ill" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ile" or "ill"?

"ill" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,175 in our German list, against #48,983 for "ile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ile" and "ill".

Full dictionary entry for "ile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ill" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #340,891 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ile" and "ill" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ile vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #340,891 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.