icivsiraWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ici is a adverb, ira is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#153
“ici” frequency rank
#2,932
“ira” frequency rank
3085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ici ira
Definition Il marque la proximité immédiate dans l’espace par rapport à soi. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif futur simple de aller.

Where the eye mixes ici and ira

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

3 ch
ici
3 ch
ira

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ici is \i.si\ while ira is \i.ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ici is recorded at frequency rank #153, classified as anadv, pronounced \i.si\. ira is at rank #2,932, tagged as averb, pronounced \i.ʁa\.

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 3085, this pair ranks #434,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ici vs ira

Shared letters: i. Private to "ici": c. Private to "ira": ar.

"ici" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ira" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ici" and "ira" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ici" is an adverb and "ira" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ici" or "ira"?
"ici" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #153 in our French list, against #2,932 for "ira". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list