ia vs it, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#600
“ia” frequency rank: #1,934
“it” frequency rank: 2534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ia	it
Definition	primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do indicativo do verbo ir	caso nominativo da terceira pessoa neutra do singular, ele, ela, ile

Where the eye mixes ia and it

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

Visual trap between ia and it

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ia is /ˈi.ɐ/ while it is /ɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “ia” becomes t in “it”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2534, 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/. it is at rank #1,934, tagged as apron, pronounced /ɪt/.

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 2534, this pair ranks #72,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ia vs it

Shared letters: i. Private to "ia": a. Private to "it": t.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ia" for "it" ever safe?

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

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

"ia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #600 in our Portuguese list, against #1,934 for "it". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "ia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "it" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #72,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ia" and "it" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs it". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.