Which to use
“bien” is a noun and “bon” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,913
- “bien” frequency rank
- #10,479
- “bon” frequency rank
- 34392
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bien | bon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | abelha | bom |
Letter map: bien vs bon
Shared letters muted; letters that set bien and bon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Role in the sentence - bien and bon
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bien is anoun and bonanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bien is recorded at frequency rank #23,913, classified as anoun, pronounced /biˈen/. 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 34392, this pair ranks #32,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bien vs bon
Shared letters: bn. Private to "bien": ei. Private to "bon": o.
"bien" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "bon" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bien ← bbien · bein · bienn · bine · iben
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bien" for "bon" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bien" or "bon" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "bien" vs "bon" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "bien" 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 #32,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bien" and "bon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bien 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 #32,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.