idovsirConfusable pair

Quick tell: ido is a noun, ir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,480
“ido” frequency rank
#162
“ir” frequency rank
3642
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ido ir
Definition língua artificial, uma versão simplificada do esperanto; não é adotada oficialmente por nenhum país e é seguida por grupos pequenos de pessoas, especialmente na Europa mover-se de um lugar para outro

Letter map: ido vs ir

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

3 ch
ido
2 ch
ir

Part-of-speech tell for ido / ir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ido is anoun and iraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ido is recorded at frequency rank #3,480, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈi.du/. 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 3642, this pair ranks #71,456 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ido vs ir

Shared letters: i. Private to "ido": do. Private to "ir": r.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ido" for "ir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ido" is a noun and "ir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ido" vs "ir" - which ranks higher?
"ir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our Portuguese list, against #3,480 for "ido". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ido" and "ir".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ido" 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 #71,456 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ido" and "ir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ido vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #71,456 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list