ido vs isto, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,480
“ido” frequency rank: #349
“isto” frequency rank: 3829
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ido	isto
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	indica algo que está próximo a quem fala ou assunto de que se fala

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ido and isto apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

ido

4 ch

isto

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ido is /ˈi.du/ while isto is /ˈis.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3829, 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/. isto is at rank #349, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈis.tu/.

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 3829, this pair ranks #71,254 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ido vs isto

Shared letters: io. Private to "ido": d. Private to "isto": st.

"ido" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "isto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

isto ← isot · issto · istto · itso

Frequency comparison

ido#3,480

isto#349

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ido" and "isto" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ido" is a noun and "isto" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ido" or "isto"?

"isto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #349 in our Portuguese list, against #3,480 for "ido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ido vs isto

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “ido”; for a pronoun, it's “isto”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ido” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable