is vs its, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“is” is a verb and “its” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,709
“is” frequency rank: #11,659
“its” frequency rank: 13368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	is	its
Definition	contração de agus; e	adjetivo possessivo da terceira pessoa neutra do singular, dele ou dela.

Letter map: is vs its

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

2 ch

3 ch

its

Role in the sentence - is and its

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is is averb and itsanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #1,709, classified as averb. its is at rank #11,659, tagged as anadj.

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 13368, this pair ranks #58,995 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of is vs its

Shared letters: is. Private to "is": -. Private to "its": t.

"is" · 2 letters · shape VC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Frequency check: "is" vs "its" - which ranks higher?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,709 in our Portuguese list, against #11,659 for "its". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "is" vs "its" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "is" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #58,995 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"is" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs its". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,995 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.