im vs ira, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#12,077
“im” frequency rank: #5,314
“ira” frequency rank: 17391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	im	ira
Definition	sou;	cólera

Letter map: im vs ira

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

2 ch

3 ch

ira

Part-of-speech tell for im / ira

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: im is averb and iraanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

im is recorded at frequency rank #12,077, classified as averb. ira is at rank #5,314, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈi.ɾɐ/.

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 17391, this pair ranks #53,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of im vs ira

Shared letters: i. Private to "im": m. Private to "ira": ar.

"im" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ira" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "im" and "ira" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "im" vs "ira" - which ranks higher?

"ira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,314 in our Portuguese list, against #12,077 for "im". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "im" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #53,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"im" and "ira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "im vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.