ios vs ir, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ios” is a noun and “ir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,870
“ios” frequency rank: #14,065
“ir” frequency rank: 22935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ios	ir
Definition	Pluriel de io.	Aller, se déplacer jusqu'à un endroit.

Where the eye mixes ios and ir

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

3 ch

ios

2 ch

Visual trap between ios and ir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ios is \jo\ while ir is \iɾ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ios is recorded at frequency rank #8,870, classified as anoun, pronounced \jo\. ir is at rank #14,065, tagged as averb, pronounced \iɾ\.

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 22935, this pair ranks #355,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ios vs ir

Shared letters: i. Private to "ios": os. Private to "ir": r.

"ios" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "ir" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ios" and "ir" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "ios" vs "ir" - which ranks higher?

"ios" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,870 in our French list, against #14,065 for "ir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "ios" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #355,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ios" and "ir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ir vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #355,268 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.