ia vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ia” and “is” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#600
“ia” frequency rank: #1,709
“is” frequency rank: 2309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ia	is
Definition	primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do indicativo do verbo ir	contração de agus; e

Letter map: ia vs is

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

2 ch

Corpus notes: ia and is

ia and is are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “ia” becomes s in “is”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ia is recorded at frequency rank #600, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈi.ɐ/. 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 2309, this pair ranks #73,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ia vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "ia": a. Private to "is": s.

"ia" · 2 letters · shape VV · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They differ by a single letter - a in “ia” becomes s in “is”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

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

"ia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #600 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.

Useful next steps

You've compared "ia" and "is". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "ia" 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 #73,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ia" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs is". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.