Is or us?
is is a verb meaning “Used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic…”; us is a pronoun meaning “Me and at least one other person, excluding the person(s) being addressed.…”. Use is as a verb and us as a pronoun. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) is is about 11 times as common as us.
What is the difference between is and us?
| is | us | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, pronoun, noun, prefix | pronoun, determiner, noun, adjective, symbol |
| Meaning | colloquialUsed in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural | Me and at least one other person, excluding the person(s) being addressed. (exclusive us.) Me and at least one other person, including the person(s) being addressed. (inclusive us.) Designates the speaker(s)/writer(s) as constituting or belonging to the stated category of people (objective case) |
| Example | He is a doctor | Don't treat us like idiots |
| Forms | none | uz, is, iz |
| Pronunciation | /ɪz/ /ɘz/ | /əs/ /ʌs/ /əz/ |
| In writing | 11,749 times per million words | 1,096 times per million words |
Sources: is and us in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of is and us
is
- 1
colloquialUsed in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural
There is three of them there
- 2
Alternative spelling of us (“me”)
- 3
Initialism of International Sign
- 4
Alternative form of iso-, before a vowel
- 5
Abbreviation of Islands (also Is.)
- 6
Pronunciation spelling of his
- 7
Abbreviation of Islands (also Is.)
- 8
Alternative letter-case form of is. (“abbreviation of Islands”)
us
- 1
Me and at least one other person, excluding the person(s) being addressed. (exclusive us.)
Don't treat us like idiots
- 2
Designates the speaker(s)/writer(s) as constituting or belonging to the stated category of people (objective case)
It's not good enough for us teachers
- 3
informalThe relationship between the speaker and some other unspecified person
There is no us
- 4
Initialism of unconditioned stimulus
- 5
Abbreviation of undersize
- 6
The currency symbol for the United States dollar
- 7
Me and at least one other person, including the person(s) being addressed. (inclusive us.)
Let's ask him if he'll give us a lift
- 8
proscribedDesignates the speaker(s)/writer(s) as constituting or belonging to the stated category of people (subjective case)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, is or us?
is appears 11,749 times per million words; us 1,096 times per million words.
is 11,749 times per million wordsus 1,096 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).