ic vs ich, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,339
“ic” frequency rank: #32,637
“ich” frequency rank: 57976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ic	ich
Definition	eu, pronome pessoal do caso reto da primeira pessoa do singular	eu, pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da primeira pessoa do singular:

Where the eye mixes ic and ich

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

ich

Look-alike desk: ic vs ich

A purely visual mix-up. ic (/iʧ/) and ich (/ˈɪç/) 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 extra letter(s) - “ic” sits inside “ich”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ic is recorded at frequency rank #25,339, classified as apron, pronounced /iʧ/. ich is at rank #32,637, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈɪç/.

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 57976, this pair ranks #9,001 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ic vs ich

Shared letters: ci. Private to "ic": -. Private to "ich": h.

"ic" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ich" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ic" for "ich" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/iʧ/ versus /ˈɪç/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ic" or "ich" show up more?

"ic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,339 in our Portuguese list, against #32,637 for "ich". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "ic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ich" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #9,001 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ic" and "ich" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ich vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,001 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.