Which to use
“bela” is an adjective and “bola” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,837
- “bela” frequency rank
- #1,235
- “bola” frequency rank
- 3072
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bela | bola |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | bonito(a), lindo(a) | sólido esférico qualquer (ver esfera) |
Letter map: bela vs bola
Shared letters muted; letters that set bela and bola apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for bela / bola
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bela is anadjective and bolaanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “bela” becomes o in “bola”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3072, 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/.. bola is at rank #1,235, 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 3072, this pair ranks #72,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bela vs bola
Shared letters: abl. Private to "bela": e. Private to "bola": o.
"bela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "bola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bela" and "bola" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bela" or "bola" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "bela" vs "bola" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "bela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bela" and "bola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bela vs bile". 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 #72,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.