ilo vs ir, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#43,641
“ilo” frequency rank: #186
“ir” frequency rank: 43827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ilo	ir
Definition	Herramienta	Desplazarse de un lugar a otro.

Where the eye mixes ilo and ir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

ilo

2 ch

Visual trap between ilo and ir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ilo is /ˈilo/ while ir is [ˈiɾ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ilo is recorded at frequency rank #43,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈilo/. ir is at rank #186, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈiɾ].

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 43827, this pair ranks #140,470 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ilo vs ir

Shared letters: i. Private to "ilo": lo. Private to "ir": r.

"ilo" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ir" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ilo" and "ir" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

In ordinary Spanish text, does "ilo" or "ir" show up more?

"ir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #186 in our Spanish list, against #43,641 for "ilo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "ilo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #140,470 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ilo" and "ir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ilo vs iza". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #140,470 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.