is vs its, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“is” is a verb and “its” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#478
“is” frequency rank: #9,388
“its” frequency rank: 9866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	is	its
Definition	[1] umgangssprachlich, dialektal, norddeutsch: 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein	sein

Where the eye mixes is and its

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

its

Why the eye confuses is with its

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: is is [ɪs] while its is [ɪts]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #478, classified as averb, pronounced [ɪs]. its is at rank #9,388, tagged as apron, pronounced [ɪts].

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 9866, this pair ranks #1,977,926 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of is vs its

Shared letters: is. Private to "is": -. Private to "its": t.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "is" and "its" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Frequency check: "is" vs "its" - which ranks higher?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #478 in our German list, against #9,388 for "its". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "is" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,977,926 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"is" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IMs vs its". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,977,926 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.