ingavsislaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,796
“inga” frequency rank
#939
“isla” frequency rank
45735
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inga isla
Definition Inca. Territorio rodeado completamente por agua.

Where the eye mixes inga and isla

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

4 ch
inga
4 ch
isla

Why the eye confuses inga with isla

A purely visual mix-up. inga ([ˈĩŋga]) and isla ([ˈisla]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45735, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inga is recorded at frequency rank #44,796, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈĩŋga]. isla is at rank #939, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈisla].

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 45735, this pair ranks #129,705 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inga vs isla

Shared letters: ai. Private to "inga": gn. Private to "isla": ls.

"inga" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "isla" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ingainag · ingga · innga · niga
  • islailsa · isal · islla · issla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "inga" for "isla" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈĩŋga] versus [ˈisla]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "inga" or "isla"?
"isla" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #939 in our Spanish list, against #44,796 for "inga". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "inga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isla" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,705 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inga" and "isla" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inga 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 #129,705 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