ils vs im, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ils” is a pronoun and “im” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,900
“ils” frequency rank: #12,077
“im” frequency rank: 56977
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ils	im
Definition	eles	sou;

Letter map: ils vs im

Shared letters muted; letters that set ils and im apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

ils

2 ch

Role in the sentence - ils and im

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ils is apronoun and imaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ils is recorded at frequency rank #44,900, classified as apron, pronounced \il\. im is at rank #12,077, 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 56977, this pair ranks #9,612 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ils vs im

Shared letters: i. Private to "ils": ls. Private to "im": m.

"ils" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "im" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ils" and "im" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Which is more common, "ils" or "im"?

"im" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,077 in our Portuguese list, against #44,900 for "ils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ils" and "im".

Full dictionary entry for "ils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "im" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #9,612 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ils" and "im" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ils vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,612 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.