public vs público, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“public” is an adjective and “público” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,212
“public” frequency rank: #382
“público” frequency rank: 14594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	public	público
Definition	Público	Espectadores de cualquier acto.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set public and público apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

public

7 ch

público

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: public is [py.blik] while público is [ˈpuβ̞liko]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

public is recorded at frequency rank #14,212, classified as anadj, pronounced [py.blik]. público is at rank #382, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpuβ̞liko].

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 14594, this pair ranks #283,504 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of public vs público

Shared letters: bcilp. Private to "public": u. Private to "público": oú.

"public" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "público" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

public ← pbulic · ppublic · pubblic · pubilc · publci · publicc · publlic · pulbic

Frequency comparison

public#14,212

público#382

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "public" and "público" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "public" is an adjective and "público" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "public" or "público"?

"público" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #382 in our Spanish list, against #14,212 for "public". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering public vs público

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “public”; for a noun, it's “público”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “public” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable