bisvsbomConfusable pair

Quick tell: bis is a preposition, bom is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bis” is a preposition and “bom” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,300
“bis” frequency rank
#96
“bom” frequency rank
14396
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bis bom
Definition até que corresponde plenamente ao que é exigido, desejado ou esperado quanto à sua natureza, adequação, função, eficácia, funcionamento etc. (falando de ser ou coisa)

Letter map: bis vs bom

Shared letters muted; letters that set bis and bom apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
bis
3 ch
bom

Part-of-speech tell for bis / bom

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bis is apreposition and bomanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bis is recorded at frequency rank #14,300, classified as aprep. bom is at rank #96, 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 14396, this pair ranks #57,697 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bis vs bom

Shared letters: b. Private to "bis": is. Private to "bom": mo.

"bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bis" for "bom" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bis" is a preposition and "bom" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bis" or "bom"?
"bom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #96 in our Portuguese list, against #14,300 for "bis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "bis" vs "bom" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,697 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bis" and "bom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,697 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