imvsioTell them apart

Quick tell: im is a adjective, io is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“im” is an adjective and “io” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,152
“im” frequency rank
#9,480
“io” frequency rank
19632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature im io
Definition Mi. Algo.

Letter map: im vs io

Shared letters muted; letters that set im and io apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
im
2 ch
io

Part-of-speech tell for im / io

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: im is anadjective and ioapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “im” becomes o in “io”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

im is recorded at frequency rank #10,152, classified as anadj. io is at rank #9,480, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈi.o/.

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 19632, this pair ranks #262,901 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of im vs io

Shared letters: i. Private to "im": m. Private to "io": o.

"im" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "io" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "im" and "io" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "im" is an adjective and "io" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "im" or "io" show up more?
"io" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,480 in our Spanish list, against #10,152 for "im". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "im" vs "io" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "im" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "io" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,901 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "im" and "io" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "im vs iza". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #262,901 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