ir vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#162
“ir” frequency rank: #1,709
“is” frequency rank: 1871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ir	is
Definition	mover-se de um lugar para outro	contração de agus; e

Letter map: ir vs is

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

2 ch

Pair insight - ir / is

ir and is are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - r in “ir” becomes s in “is”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ir is recorded at frequency rank #162, classified as averb. 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 1871, this pair ranks #73,655 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ir vs is

Shared letters: i. Private to "ir": r. Private to "is": s.

"ir" · 2 letters · shape VC · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ir" and "is" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They differ by a single letter - r in “ir” becomes s in “is”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "ir" or "is"?

"ir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our Portuguese list, against #1,709 for "is". 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 "ir" and "is".

Full dictionary entry for "ir" 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 #73,655 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ir" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs is". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,655 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.