if vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“if” is a conjunction and “is” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,207
“if” frequency rank: #1,709
“is” frequency rank: 6916
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	if	is
Definition	equivalente à conjunção se	contração de agus; e

Letter map: if vs is

Shared letters muted; letters that set if and is apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

Grammar separator: if vs is

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: if is aconjunction and isaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - f in “if” becomes s in “is”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

if is recorded at frequency rank #5,207, classified as aconj, pronounced /ɪf/. is is at rank #1,709, 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 6916, this pair ranks #67,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of if vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "if": f. Private to "is": s.

"if" · 2 letters · shape VC · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "if" for "is" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "if" or "is" show up more?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,709 in our Portuguese list, against #5,207 for "if". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "if" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "is" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #67,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"if" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "if vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.