ipsvsitsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ips is a symbol, its is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ips” is a symbol and “its” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,871
“ips” frequency rank
#15,916
“its” frequency rank
54787
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ips its
Definition Unité de mesure de la fréquence d’échantillonnage d’un film : nombre d’images qui défilent par seconde. Son, sa (lorsque c’est une chose qui possède).

Where the eye mixes ips and its

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ips
3 ch
its

Look-alike desk: ips vs its

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ips is \i.pe.ɛs\ while its is \ɪts\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - p in “ips” becomes t in “its”, and the parts of speech differ too (symbol vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ips is recorded at frequency rank #38,871, classified as asymbol, pronounced \i.pe.ɛs\. its is at rank #15,916, tagged as adet, pronounced \ɪts\.

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 54787, this pair ranks #131,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ips vs its

Shared letters: is. Private to "ips": p. Private to "its": t.

"ips" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ips" and "its" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ips" is a symbol and "its" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ips" or "its" show up more?
"its" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,916 in our French list, against #38,871 for "ips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ips" and "its" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ips" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ips vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #131,671 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