il vs it, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“il” and “it” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18
“il” frequency rank: #2,781
“it” frequency rank: 2799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	il	it
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.	Il, elle, le, la. Pronom personnel utilisé pour parler d’un animal ou d’une chose.

Where the eye mixes il and it

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

2 ch

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. il (\il\) and it (\ɪt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - l in “il” becomes t in “it”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

il is recorded at frequency rank #18, classified as apron, pronounced \il\. it is at rank #2,781, tagged as apron, pronounced \ɪt\.

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 2799, this pair ranks #435,455 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of il vs it

Shared letters: i. Private to "il": l. Private to "it": t.

"il" · 2 letters · shape VC · "it" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "il" and "it" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\il\ versus \ɪt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "il" or "it"?

"il" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18 in our French list, against #2,781 for "it". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "il" and "it". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "il" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "it" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #435,455 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"il" and "it" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isi vs it". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.