B vs ban, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“B” is a symbol and “ban” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#734
“B” frequency rank: #13,668
“ban” frequency rank: 14402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	B	ban
Definition	letra do alfabeto latino	proibição

Letter map: B vs ban

Shared letters muted; letters that set B and ban apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

3 ch

ban

Grammar separator: B vs ban

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: B is asymbol and bananoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “B” sits inside “ban”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

B is recorded at frequency rank #734, classified as asymbol. ban is at rank #13,668, tagged as anoun.

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 14402, this pair ranks #57,690 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of B vs ban

Shared letters: b. Private to "B": -. Private to "ban": an.

"B" · 1 letters · shape C · "ban" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "B" for "ban" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "B" is a symbol and "ban" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "B" or "ban" show up more?

"B" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #734 in our Portuguese list, against #13,668 for "ban". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "B" and "ban". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "B" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ban" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #57,690 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"B" and "ban" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ban vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,690 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.