bin vs by, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“bin” is a verb and “by” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,722
“bin” frequency rank: #1,598
“by” frequency rank: 10320
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	bin	by
Definition	primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo sein:	por;

Letter map: bin vs by

Shared letters muted; letters that set bin and by apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

bin

2 ch

Role in the sentence - bin and by

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bin is averb and byapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bin is recorded at frequency rank #8,722, classified as averb, pronounced /bɪn/. by is at rank #1,598, tagged as aprep.

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 10320, this pair ranks #62,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bin vs by

Shared letters: b. Private to "bin": in. Private to "by": y.

"bin" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bin" and "by" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bin" is a verb and "by" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bin" or "by" show up more?

"by" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,598 in our Portuguese list, against #8,722 for "bin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "bin" and "by". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "bin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #62,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"bin" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bin". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #62,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.