ichvsiciWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ich is a pronoun, ici is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ich” is a pronoun and “ici” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,841
“ich” frequency rank
#153
“ici” frequency rank
27994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ich ici
Definition Je (première personne du singulier nominatif). Il marque la proximité immédiate dans l’espace par rapport à soi.

Where the eye mixes ich and ici

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

3 ch
ich
3 ch
ici

Look-alike desk: ich vs ici

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ich is \iːt͡ʃ\ while ici is \i.si\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - h in “ich” becomes i in “ici”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ich is recorded at frequency rank #27,841, classified as apron, pronounced \iːt͡ʃ\. ici is at rank #153, tagged as anadv, pronounced \i.si\.

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 27994, this pair ranks #325,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ich vs ici

Shared letters: ci. Private to "ich": h. Private to "ici": -.

"ich" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ici" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ich" for "ici" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ich" is a pronoun and "ici" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ich" vs "ici" - which ranks higher?
"ici" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #153 in our French list, against #27,841 for "ich". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ici" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ich" and "ici" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ich vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #325,533 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list