ichvsiiWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#27,841
“ich” frequency rank
#627
“ii” frequency rank
28468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ich ii
Definition Je (première personne du singulier nominatif). Oui.

Where the eye mixes ich and ii

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

3 ch
ich
2 ch
ii

Why the eye confuses ich with ii

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ich is \iːt͡ʃ\ while ii is \iː\. 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 (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28468, 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\. ii is at rank #627, tagged as anadv, pronounced \iː\.

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 28468, this pair ranks #322,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ich vs ii

Shared letters: i. Private to "ich": ch. Private to "ii": -.

"ich" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ii" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ich" and "ii" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ich" is a pronoun and "ii" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ich" vs "ii" - which ranks higher?
"ii" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #627 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ii" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,597 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ich" and "ii" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ich vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #322,597 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