itovsitsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#42,956
“ito” frequency rank
#15,916
“its” frequency rank
58872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ito its
Definition (se) Noyer, (s') asphyxier, (s') étouffer. Son, sa (lorsque c’est une chose qui possède).

Letter map: ito vs its

Shared letters muted; letters that set ito and its apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ito
3 ch
its

Grammar separator: ito vs its

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ito is averb and itsadeterminer. On the page they differ by a single letter - o in “ito” becomes s in “its”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ito is recorded at frequency rank #42,956, classified as averb. 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 58872, this pair ranks #106,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ito vs its

Shared letters: it. Private to "ito": o. Private to "its": s.

"ito" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ito" for "its" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ito" is a verb and "its" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ito" 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 #42,956 for "ito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ito" vs "its" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ito" 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 #106,406 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ito" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isi vs ito". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #106,406 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