illvsinaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ill is a adverb, ina is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#25,175
“ill” frequency rank
#16,737
“ina” frequency rank
41912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ill ina
Definition schlecht, falsch ISO-639-2-Code und ISO-639-3-Code für die Sprache Interlingua

Letter map: ill vs ina

Shared letters muted; letters that set ill and ina apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ill
3 ch
ina

Part-of-speech tell for ill / ina

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ill is anadverb and inaanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ill is recorded at frequency rank #25,175, classified as anadv, pronounced [ɪl]. ina is at rank #16,737, tagged as anabbrev.

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 41912, this pair ranks #1,465,316 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ill vs ina

Shared letters: i. Private to "ill": l. Private to "ina": an.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ill" and "ina" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ill" is an adverb and "ina" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ill" or "ina" show up more?
"ina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,737 in our German list, against #25,175 for "ill". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ill" and "ina". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ina" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,465,316 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ill" and "ina" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ill vs IMs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,465,316 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