ilevsissConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#48,983
“ile” frequency rank
#6,551
“iss” frequency rank
55534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ile iss
Definition Haar n 2. Person Singular Imperativ des Verbs essen

Letter map: ile vs iss

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

3 ch
ile
3 ch
iss

Part-of-speech tell for ile / iss

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ile is anoun and issaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ile is recorded at frequency rank #48,983, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 55534, this pair ranks #975,821 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ile vs iss

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ile" for "iss" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ile" is a noun and "iss" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ile" or "iss" show up more?
"iss" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,551 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.

Useful next steps

You've compared "ile" and "iss". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ile" 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 #975,821 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ile" and "iss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ile vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #975,821 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