belavsbelowWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bela is a adjective, below is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bela” is an adjective and “below” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,837
“bela” frequency rank
#35,455
“below” frequency rank
37292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bela below
Definition bonito(a), lindo(a) debaixo, abaixo, por baixo

Where the eye mixes bela and below

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bela
5 ch
below

Look-alike desk: bela vs below

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bela is /ˈbɛ.la/. while below is /bɪˈloʊ/. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bela is recorded at frequency rank #1,837, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɛ.la/.. below is at rank #35,455, tagged as anadv, pronounced /bɪˈloʊ/.

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 37292, this pair ranks #29,352 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bela vs below

Shared letters: bel. Private to "bela": a. Private to "below": ow.

"bela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "below" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • belabbela · beal · blea · ebla
  • belowbbelow · bellow · beloww · belwo · beolw · bleow · eblow

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bela" and "below" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bela" is an adjective and "below" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bela" or "below"?
"bela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,837 in our Portuguese list, against #35,455 for "below". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "below" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,352 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bela" and "below" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "below vs bolor". 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 #29,352 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