IJ vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#46,535
“IJ” frequency rank: #8
“is” frequency rank: 46543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	IJ	is
Definition	A lake (formerly a bay) adjoining the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands.	third-person singular simple present indicative of be

Where the eye mixes IJ and is

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

Visual trap between IJ and is

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: IJ is /eɪ/ while is is /ɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - j in “IJ” becomes s in “is”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

IJ is recorded at frequency rank #46,535, classified as aname, pronounced /eɪ/. is is at rank #8, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪz/.

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 46543, this pair ranks #210,778 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of IJ vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "IJ": j. Private to "is": s.

"IJ" · 2 letters · shape VC · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "IJ" for "is" ever safe?

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

In ordinary English text, does "IJ" or "is" show up more?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8 in our English list, against #46,535 for "IJ". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "IJ" 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 #210,778 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"IJ" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IJ vs ith". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #210,778 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.