ilvsiraWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#18
“il” frequency rank
#2,932
“ira” frequency rank
2950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature il ira
Definition 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. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif futur simple de aller.

Where the eye mixes il and ira

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

2 ch
il
3 ch
ira

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: il is \il\ while ira is \i.ʁa\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

il is recorded at frequency rank #18, classified as apron, pronounced \il\. 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 2950, this pair ranks #435,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of il vs ira

Shared letters: i. Private to "il": l. Private to "ira": ar.

"il" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ira" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "il" and "ira" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "il" is a pronoun and "ira" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "il" or "ira"?
"il" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18 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