ic vs ils, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,339
“ic” frequency rank: #44,900
“ils” frequency rank: 70239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ic	ils
Definition	eu, pronome pessoal do caso reto da primeira pessoa do singular	eles

Where the eye mixes ic and ils

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

2 ch

3 ch

ils

Visual trap between ic and ils

A purely visual mix-up. ic (/iʧ/) and ils (\il\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70239, 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/. ils is at rank #44,900, tagged as apron, pronounced \il\.

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 70239, this pair ranks #3,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ic vs ils

Shared letters: i. Private to "ic": c. Private to "ils": ls.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"ic" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,339 in our Portuguese list, against #44,900 for "ils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "ic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #3,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ic" and "ils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ils vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.