ilevsistTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#48,983
“ile” frequency rank
#7
“ist” frequency rank
48990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ile ist
Definition Haar n 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein

Letter map: ile vs ist

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

3 ch
ile
3 ch
ist

Role in the sentence - ile and ist

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ile is anoun and istaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ile is recorded at frequency rank #48,983, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. ist is at rank #7, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɪst].

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 48990, this pair ranks #1,228,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ile vs ist

Shared letters: i. Private to "ile": el. Private to "ist": st.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ile" for "ist" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ile" is a noun and "ist" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ile" or "ist" show up more?
"ist" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ist" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,228,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ile" and "ist" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ile vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,228,069 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