indievsinnitWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: indie is a adjective, innit is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“indie” is an adjective and “innit” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,140
“indie” frequency rank
#39,861
“innit” frequency rank
47001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indie innit
Definition Independent; from outside the mainstream. Contraction of isn't + it.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set indie and innit apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
indie
5 ch
innit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: indie is /ˈɪndi/ while innit is /ˈɪn.ɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indie is recorded at frequency rank #7,140, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɪndi/. innit is at rank #39,861, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ˈɪn.ɪt/.

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 47001, this pair ranks #206,497 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indie vs innit

Shared letters: in. Private to "indie": de. Private to "innit": t.

"indie" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "innit" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indieidnie · inddie · indei · inide · inndie · nidie
  • innitinint · innitt · innti · ninit

Frequency comparison

indie#7,140
innit#39,861

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "indie" and "innit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "indie" is an adjective and "innit" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "indie" or "innit"?
"indie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,140 in our English list, against #39,861 for "innit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering indie vs innit

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “indie”; for a contraction, it's “innit”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “indie” 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