ILS vs ist, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#44,701
“ILS” frequency rank: #7
“ist” frequency rank: 44708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ILS	ist
Definition	internationaler Währungscode für Schekel, die Währung von Israel	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein

Letter map: ILS vs ist

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

3 ch

ILS

3 ch

ist

Role in the sentence - ILS and ist

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ILS is anabbrev and istaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ILS is recorded at frequency rank #44,701, classified as anabbrev. 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 44708, this pair ranks #1,377,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ILS vs ist

Shared letters: is. Private to "ILS": l. Private to "ist": t.

"ILS" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "ist" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ILS" for "ist" ever safe?

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

In ordinary German text, does "ILS" or "ist" show up more?

"ist" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7 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

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

Full dictionary entry for "ILS" 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 #1,377,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ILS" and "ist" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ILS vs IMs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,377,325 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.