convscopyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: con is a preposition, copy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“con” is a preposition and “copy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16
“con” frequency rank
#32,148
“copy” frequency rank
32164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature con copy
Definition En compañía de. Copia.

Where the eye mixes con and copy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
con
4 ch
copy

Look-alike desk: con vs copy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: con is [kõn] while copy is /ˈkɒp.i/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

con is recorded at frequency rank #16, classified as aprep, pronounced [kõn]. copy is at rank #32,148, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒp.i/.

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 32164, this pair ranks #203,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of con vs copy

Shared letters: co. Private to "con": n. Private to "copy": py.

"con" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "copy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • copyccopy · coppy · copyy · coyp · cpoy · ocpy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "con" and "copy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "con" is a preposition and "copy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "con" vs "copy" - which ranks higher?
"con" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16 in our Spanish list, against #32,148 for "copy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "con" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "copy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #203,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "con" and "copy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs copy". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #203,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list