Español homophones

bai/bei/buy

"bai" is an adverb; "bei" is a preposition - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #6 of 387 Spanish groups.

Data vintage

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "bai" arrives as an adverb, while "bei" is a preposition. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "bai" is 3 letters, "bei" is 3; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "bai" is 3 letters, "buy" is 3; only the sound ties them.
  • No shared spelling stem: "bei" is 3 letters, "buy" is 3; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across bai, bei, buy: b. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • bai

    3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV

    Inventory abi · private ai

  • bei

    3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV

    Inventory bei · private ei

  • buy

    3 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVV

    Inventory buy · private uy

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "bai" when you mean: Sí. (afirmación)
  • Write "bei" when you mean: Cerca de, junto a.
  • Write "buy" when you mean: Comprar.

Each spelling

bai

adverb · /baɪ/ · #27,101 frequency

Sí. (afirmación)

bei

preposition · /baɪ/ · #35,376 frequency

Cerca de, junto a.

buy

verb · /baɪ/ · #29,082 frequency

Comprar.

Nearby Spanish homophone groups

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list