iraivsisiTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,994
“irai” frequency rank
#49,170
“isi” frequency rank
55164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature irai isi
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif futur simple de aller. Deuxième personne du singulier du futur de l’indicatif du verbe isal/isañ.

Where the eye mixes irai and isi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. irai runs 4 letters (VCVV) against isi's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
irai
3 ch
isi

Look-alike desk: irai vs isi

A purely visual mix-up. irai (\i.ʁe\) and isi (\ˈisːi\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

irai is recorded at frequency rank #5,994, classified as averb, pronounced \i.ʁe\. isi is at rank #49,170, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈisːi\.

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 55164, this pair ranks #129,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of irai vs isi

Shared letters: i. Private to "irai": ar. Private to "isi": s.

"irai" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "isi" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • irai ← iari · iria · irrai · riai

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "irai" for "isi" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\i.ʁe\ versus \ˈisːi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "irai" or "isi" show up more?
"irai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,994 in our French list, against #49,170 for "isi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "irai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "irai" and "isi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs isi". 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 #129,252 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