Which to use
“ir” is a verb and “Iraq” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,065
- “ir” frequency rank
- #25,704
- “Iraq” frequency rank
- 39769
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ir | Iraq |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aller, se déplacer jusqu'à un endroit. | Pays du Moyen-Orient, situé au nord de la péninsule arabique. Il est bordé par la Turquie au nord, l’Iran au nord-est, le golfe Persique et le Koweït au sud-est, l’Arabie saoudite au sud, la Jordanie au sud-ouest, et la Syrie à l’ouest, et dont la capitale est Bagdad. |
Where the eye mixes ir and Iraq
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ir with Iraq
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ir is \iɾ\ while Iraq is \i.ʁak\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ir” sits inside “Iraq”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39769, 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\. Iraq is at rank #25,704, tagged as aname, pronounced \i.ʁak\.
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 39769, this pair ranks #245,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ir vs Iraq
Shared letters: ir. Private to "ir": -. Private to "Iraq": aq.
"ir" · 2 letters · shape VC · "Iraq" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Iraq ← iarq · iraqq · irqa · irraq · riaq
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ir" and "Iraq" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ir" or "Iraq" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Iraq" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ir" and "Iraq" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Iraq vs IRD". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #245,525 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.