ici vs ir, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#45,880
“ici” frequency rank: #162
“ir” frequency rank: 46042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ici	ir
Definition	aqui	mover-se de um lugar para outro

Letter map: ici vs ir

Shared letters muted; letters that set ici and ir apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

ici

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for ici / ir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ici is anadverb and iraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46042, 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\. ir is at rank #162, 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 46042, this pair ranks #19,324 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ici vs ir

Shared letters: i. Private to "ici": c. Private to "ir": r.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ici" and "ir" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

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

"ir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 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 "ir" 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 "ir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #19,324 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ici" and "ir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ici vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #19,324 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.