is vs isu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#8
“is” frequency rank: #37,989
“isu” frequency rank: 37997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	is	isu
Definition	third-person singular simple present indicative of be	An individual seat in the loft-like balcony of a sumo arena.

Letter map: is vs isu

Shared letters muted; letters that set is and isu apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

3 ch

isu

Part-of-speech tell for is / isu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is is averb and isuanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “is” sits inside “isu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #8, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪz/. isu is at rank #37,989, tagged as anoun.

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 37997, this pair ranks #289,719 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of is vs isu

Shared letters: is. Private to "is": -. Private to "isu": u.

"is" · 2 letters · shape VC · "isu" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "is" and "isu" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "is" vs "isu" - which ranks higher?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8 in our English list, against #37,989 for "isu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "is" and "isu". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "is" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "isu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #289,719 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"is" and "isu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isu vs ith". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #289,719 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.