ban vs bon, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#13,668
“ban” frequency rank: #10,479
“bon” frequency rank: 24147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ban	bon
Definition	proibição	bom

Letter map: ban vs bon

Shared letters muted; letters that set ban and bon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

ban

3 ch

bon

Grammar separator: ban vs bon

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ban is anoun and bonanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “ban” becomes o in “bon”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ban is recorded at frequency rank #13,668, classified as anoun. bon is at rank #10,479, tagged as anadj.

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 24147, this pair ranks #45,549 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ban vs bon

Shared letters: bn. Private to "ban": a. Private to "bon": o.

"ban" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "bon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Which is more common, "ban" or "bon"?

"bon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,479 in our Portuguese list, against #13,668 for "ban". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "ban" vs "bon" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "bon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #45,549 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ban" and "bon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ban vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #45,549 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.