ils vs in, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#44,900
“ils” frequency rank: #269
“in” frequency rank: 45169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ils	in
Definition	eles	em

Letter map: ils vs in

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

3 ch

ils

2 ch

Role in the sentence - ils and in

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ils is apronoun and inapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45169, 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\. in is at rank #269, tagged as aprep.

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 45169, this pair ranks #20,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ils vs in

Shared letters: i. Private to "ils": ls. Private to "in": n.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"in" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #269 in our Portuguese list, against #44,900 for "ils". 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 "ils" and "in".

Full dictionary entry for "ils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "in" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #20,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ils" and "in" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ils vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #20,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.