baivsBaumWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#27,371
“bai” frequency rank
#37,202
“Baum” frequency rank
64573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bai Baum
Definition de acordo com; conforme árvore

Where the eye mixes bai and Baum

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

3 ch
bai
4 ch
Baum

Visual trap between bai and Baum

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bai is /ba.ˈi/ while Baum is /ˈbaʊm/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?). 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 64573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bai is recorded at frequency rank #27,371, classified as aprep, pronounced /ba.ˈi/. Baum is at rank #37,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaʊm/ ouvir^(fonte ?) ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 64573, this pair ranks #5,718 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bai vs Baum

Shared letters: ab. Private to "bai": i. Private to "Baum": mu.

"bai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Baum" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Baumabum · bamu · baumm · bbaum · buam

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bai" and "Baum" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bai" is a preposition and "Baum" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bai" or "Baum" show up more?
"bai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,371 in our Portuguese list, against #37,202 for "Baum". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Baum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,718 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bai" and "Baum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Baum vs bué". 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 #5,718 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list