IGNvsilWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: IGN is a noun, il is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“IGN” is a noun and “il” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,597
“IGN” frequency rank
#18
“il” frequency rank
28615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature IGN il
Definition Organisme public ayant pour mission d’assurer la production, l’entretien et la diffusion de l’information géographique de référence. Pronom de la troisième personne du singulier masculin (utilisé exclusivement en tant que sujet). Désigne une personne, un animal ou une chose dont le genre est masculin.

Where the eye mixes IGN and il

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

3 ch
IGN
2 ch
il

Visual trap between IGN and il

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: IGN is \i.ʒe.ɛn\ while il is \il\. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

IGN is recorded at frequency rank #28,597, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.ʒe.ɛn\. il is at rank #18, tagged as apron, pronounced \il\.

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 28615, this pair ranks #321,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of IGN vs il

Shared letters: i. Private to "IGN": gn. Private to "il": l.

"IGN" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "il" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "IGN" for "il" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "IGN" is a noun and "il" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "IGN" or "il" show up more?
"il" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18 in our French list, against #28,597 for "IGN". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "IGN" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "il" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "IGN" and "il" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IGN vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #321,699 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