ile vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#48,983
“ile” frequency rank: #478
“is” frequency rank: 49461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ile	is
Definition	Haar n	[1] umgangssprachlich, dialektal, norddeutsch: 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein

Letter map: ile vs is

Shared letters muted; letters that set ile and is apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

ile

2 ch

Role in the sentence - ile and is

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ile is anoun and isaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ile is recorded at frequency rank #48,983, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 49461, this pair ranks #1,210,662 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ile vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "ile": el. Private to "is": s.

"ile" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #478 in our German list, against #48,983 for "ile". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "ile" vs "is" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ile" 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 #1,210,662 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ile" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ile vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,210,662 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.