ils vs it, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ils” and “it” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,900
“ils” frequency rank: #1,934
“it” frequency rank: 46834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ils	it
Definition	eles	caso nominativo da terceira pessoa neutra do singular, ele, ela, ile

Where the eye mixes ils and it

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

ils

2 ch

Visual trap between ils and it

A purely visual mix-up. ils (\il\) and it (/ɪt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46834, 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\. it is at rank #1,934, tagged as apron, pronounced /ɪt/.

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 46834, this pair ranks #18,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ils vs it

Shared letters: i. Private to "ils": ls. Private to "it": t.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ils" for "it" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\il\ versus /ɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ils" or "it" show up more?

"it" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,934 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "ils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "it" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #18,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ils" and "it" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ils vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,471 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.