ici vs in, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ici” is an adverb and “in” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,880
“ici” frequency rank: #269
“in” frequency rank: 46149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ici	in
Definition	aqui	em

Letter map: ici vs in

Shared letters muted; letters that set ici and in apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. ici runs 3 letters (VCV) against in's 2 (VC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch

ici

2 ch

Grammar separator: ici vs in

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ici is anadverb and inapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ici is recorded at frequency rank #45,880, classified as anadv, pronounced \i.si\. in is at rank #269, tagged as aprep.

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 46149, this pair ranks #19,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ici vs in

Shared letters: i. Private to "ici": c. Private to "in": n.

"ici" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "in" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ici" for "in" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ici" is an adverb and "in" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "ici" vs "in" - which ranks higher?

"in" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #269 in our Portuguese list, against #45,880 for "ici". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "ici" vs "in" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ici" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "in" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #19,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ici" and "in" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ici vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #19,195 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.