il vs ito, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#18
“il” frequency rank: #42,956
“ito” frequency rank: 42974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	il	ito
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.	(se) Noyer, (s') asphyxier, (s') étouffer.

Letter map: il vs ito

Shared letters muted; letters that set il and ito apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

ito

Grammar separator: il vs ito

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: il is apronoun and itoaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

il is recorded at frequency rank #18, classified as apron, pronounced \il\. ito is at rank #42,956, tagged as averb.

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 42974, this pair ranks #221,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of il vs ito

Shared letters: i. Private to "il": l. Private to "ito": ot.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "il" for "ito" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "il" is a pronoun and "ito" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "il" vs "ito" - which ranks higher?

"il" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18 in our French list, against #42,956 for "ito". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "il" vs "ito" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "il" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #221,548 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"il" and "ito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isi vs ito". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #221,548 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.