ichvsithConfusable pair

Quick tell: ich is a pronoun, ith is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ich” is a pronoun and “ith” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,826
“ich” frequency rank
#49,435
“ith” frequency rank
71261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ich ith
Definition I. Occurring at position i in a sequence.

Where the eye mixes ich and ith

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ich and ith follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
ich
3 ch
ith

Visual trap between ich and ith

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ich is /iːt͡ʃ/ while ith is /aɪθ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “ich” becomes t in “ith”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ich is recorded at frequency rank #21,826, classified as apron, pronounced /iːt͡ʃ/. ith is at rank #49,435, tagged as anadj, pronounced /aɪθ/.

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 71261, this pair ranks #47,419 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ich vs ith

Shared letters: hi. Private to "ich": c. Private to "ith": t.

"ich" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ith" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ich" for "ith" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ich" is a pronoun and "ith" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "ich" or "ith" show up more?
"ich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,826 in our English list, against #49,435 for "ith". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ich" and "ith" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ith" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,419 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ich" and "ith" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ISR vs ith". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,419 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list