ImavsIrmaTell them apart

Quick tell: Ima is a contraction, Irma is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ima” is a contraction and “Irma” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,790
“Ima” frequency rank
#28,258
“Irma” frequency rank
54048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ima Irma
Definition Alternative form of Imma (I'm going to). A female given name from the Germanic languages.

Letter map: Ima vs Irma

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ima and Irma apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
Ima
4 ch
Irma

Grammar separator: Ima vs Irma

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Ima is acontraction and Irmaaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ima is recorded at frequency rank #25,790, classified as acontraction. Irma is at rank #28,258, tagged as aname.

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 54048, this pair ranks #144,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ima vs Irma

Shared letters: aim. Private to "Ima": -. Private to "Irma": r.

"Ima" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "Irma" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Irmairam · irmma · irrma · rima

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ima" for "Irma" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ima" is a contraction and "Irma" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Ima" or "Irma" show up more?
"Ima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,790 in our English list, against #28,258 for "Irma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Ima" and "Irma". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ima" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Irma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ima" and "Irma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Irma vs isha". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #144,131 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