ILSvsisTell them apart

Quick tell: ILS is a abbrev, is is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,701
“ILS” frequency rank
#478
“is” frequency rank
45179
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ILS is
Definition internationaler Währungscode für Schekel, die Währung von Israel [1] umgangssprachlich, dialektal, norddeutsch: 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein

Letter map: ILS vs is

Shared letters muted; letters that set ILS and is apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ILS
2 ch
is

Role in the sentence - ILS and is

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ILS is anabbrev and isaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ILS is recorded at frequency rank #44,701, classified as anabbrev. 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 45179, this pair ranks #1,361,820 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ILS vs is

Shared letters: is. Private to "ILS": l. Private to "is": -.

"ILS" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ILS" and "is" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ILS" is an abbrev and "is" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ILS" or "is"?
"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #478 in our German list, against #44,701 for "ILS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "ILS" and "is". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ILS" 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 #1,361,820 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ILS" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ILS vs IMs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,361,820 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