is vs isso, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,709
“is” frequency rank: #40
“isso” frequency rank: 1749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	is	isso
Definition	contração de agus; e	essa coisa ou esse assunto; essas coisas; esses assuntos

Letter map: is vs isso

Shared letters muted; letters that set is and isso apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

4 ch

isso

Grammar separator: is vs isso

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is is averb and issoapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “is” sits inside “isso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #1,709, classified as averb. isso is at rank #40, tagged as apron.

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 1749, this pair ranks #73,758 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of is vs isso

Shared letters: is. Private to "is": -. Private to "isso": o.

"is" · 2 letters · shape VC · "isso" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

isso ← iso · isos · siso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "is" for "isso" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "is" or "isso" show up more?

"isso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40 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

You've compared "is" and "isso". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "is" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "isso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #73,758 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"is" and "isso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs is". Nearby pair
Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #73,758 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.