itavsitemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ita is a pronoun, item is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ita” is a pronoun and “item” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,135
“ita” frequency rank
#16,743
“item” frequency rank
46878
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ita item
Definition Personalpronomen 3. Person Femininum Singular; sie auf die gleiche Weise

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ita and item apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
ita
4 ch
item

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ita is [ítá] while item is [ˈiːtɛm]. 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 (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ita is recorded at frequency rank #30,135, classified as apron, pronounced [ítá]. item is at rank #16,743, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈiːtɛm].

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 46878, this pair ranks #1,303,828 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ita vs item

Shared letters: it. Private to "ita": a. Private to "item": em.

"ita" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "item" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • itemietm · itemm · ittem

Frequency comparison

ita#30,135
item#16,743

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ita" and "item" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ita" is a pronoun and "item" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ita" or "item"?
"item" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,743 in our German list, against #30,135 for "ita". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ita vs item

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “ita”; for an adverb, it's “item”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ita” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list