is vs iu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,709
“is” frequency rank: #42,065
“iu” frequency rank: 43774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	is	iu
Definition	contração de agus; e	código de língua ISO 639-3 para a macrolíngua esquimó/inuktitut

Letter map: is vs iu

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

2 ch

Role in the sentence - is and iu

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is is averb and iuanabbrev. On the page they differ by a single letter - s in “is” becomes u in “iu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #1,709, classified as averb. iu is at rank #42,065, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced /ˈi.u/, /ˈi.ʊ/.

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 43774, this pair ranks #21,823 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of is vs iu

Shared letters: i. Private to "is": s. Private to "iu": u.

"is" · 2 letters · shape VC · "iu" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,709 in our Portuguese list, against #42,065 for "iu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "is" vs "iu" 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 "iu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #21,823 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"is" and "iu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs iu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,823 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.