ir vs ira, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#14,065
“ir” frequency rank: #2,932
“ira” frequency rank: 16997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ir	ira
Definition	Aller, se déplacer jusqu'à un endroit.	Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif futur simple de aller.

Where the eye mixes ir and ira

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

2 ch

3 ch

ira

Look-alike desk: ir vs ira

A purely visual mix-up. ir (\iɾ\) and ira (\i.ʁa\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “ir” sits inside “ira”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ir is recorded at frequency rank #14,065, classified as averb, pronounced \iɾ\. 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 16997, this pair ranks #385,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ir vs ira

Shared letters: ir. Private to "ir": -. Private to "ira": a.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ir" and "ira" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

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

"ira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,932 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.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "ir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #385,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ir" and "ira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ir vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #385,289 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.