I vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“I” is a pronoun and “is” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#286
“I” frequency rank: #1,709
“is” frequency rank: 1995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	I	is
Definition	caso nominativo da primeira pessoa do singular, eu	contração de agus; e

Letter map: I vs is

Shared letters muted; letters that set I and is apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for I / is

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: I is apronoun and isaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “I” sits inside “is”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

I is recorded at frequency rank #286, classified as apron, pronounced /aI/. is is at rank #1,709, tagged as averb.

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 1995, this pair ranks #73,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of I vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "I": -. Private to "is": s.

"I" · 1 letters · shape V · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "I" and "is" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "I" is a pronoun and "is" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "I" or "is" show up more?

"I" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #286 in our Portuguese list, against #1,709 for "is". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "I" and "is".

Full dictionary entry for "I" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "is" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #73,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"I" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs is". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.