bisvsbonConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#14,300
“bis” frequency rank
#10,479
“bon” frequency rank
24779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bis bon
Definition até bom

Letter map: bis vs bon

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

3 ch
bis
3 ch
bon

Part-of-speech tell for bis / bon

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bis is apreposition and bonanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bis is recorded at frequency rank #14,300, classified as aprep. 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 24779, this pair ranks #44,717 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bis vs bon

Shared letters: b. Private to "bis": is. Private to "bon": no.

"bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bis" for "bon" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bis" is a preposition and "bon" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bis" or "bon" show up more?
"bon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,479 in our Portuguese list, against #14,300 for "bis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "bis" and "bon". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bis" 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 #44,717 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bis" and "bon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #44,717 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