bla vs but, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“bla” is an intj and “but” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,468
“bla” frequency rank: #25
“but” frequency rank: 28493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	bla	but
Definition	Alternative form of blah (“imitative of idle, meaningless talk”).	Apart from, except (for), excluding.

Letter map: bla vs but

Shared letters muted; letters that set bla and but apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

bla

3 ch

but

Role in the sentence - bla and but

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bla is anintj and butapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28493, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bla is recorded at frequency rank #28,468, classified as anintj. but is at rank #25, tagged as aprep, pronounced /ˈbʌt/.

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 28493, this pair ranks #370,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bla vs but

Shared letters: b. Private to "bla": al. Private to "but": tu.

"bla" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "but" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bla" and "but" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bla" is an intj and "but" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "bla" vs "but" - which ranks higher?

"but" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25 in our English list, against #28,468 for "bla". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bla" and "but".

Full dictionary entry for "bla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "but" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #370,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"bla" and "but" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "BFS vs bla". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #370,635 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.