Which to use
“bought” and “brought” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,294
- “bought” frequency rank
- #706
- “brought” frequency rank
- 2000
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bought | brought |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of buy. | simple past and past participle of bring |
Where the eye mixes bought and brought
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. bought (/bɔːt/) and brought (/bɹɔt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bought is recorded at frequency rank #1,294, classified as averb, pronounced /bɔːt/. brought is at rank #706, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɹɔt/.
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 2000, this pair ranks #526,090 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bought vs brought
Shared letters: bghotu. Private to "bought": -. Private to "brought": r.
"bought" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC · "brought" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC