ilvsillaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“il” and “illa” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,175
“il” frequency rank
#41,407
“illa” frequency rank
48582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature il illa
Definition Año. Isla.

Where the eye mixes il and illa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
il
4 ch
illa

Look-alike desk: il vs illa

A purely visual mix-up. il ([ˈil]) and illa ([ˈi.ʎə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “il” sits inside “illa”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

il is recorded at frequency rank #7,175, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈil]. illa is at rank #41,407, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈi.ʎə].

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 48582, this pair ranks #113,675 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of il vs illa

Shared letters: il. Private to "il": -. Private to "illa": a.

"il" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "illa" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • illaila · ilal

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "il" and "illa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈil] versus [ˈi.ʎə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "il" vs "illa" - which ranks higher?
"il" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,175 in our Spanish list, against #41,407 for "illa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "il" and "illa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "il" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "illa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,675 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "il" and "illa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illa vs iza". 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 #113,675 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list