Which to use
“bis” is a preposition and “but” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,300
- “bis” frequency rank
- #7,254
- “but” frequency rank
- 21554
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bis | but |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | até | mas, porém, todavia |
Letter map: bis vs but
Shared letters muted; letters that set bis and but apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for bis / but
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bis is apreposition and butaconjunction. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bis is recorded at frequency rank #14,300, classified as aprep. but is at rank #7,254, tagged as aconj.
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 21554, this pair ranks #48,669 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bis vs but
Shared letters: b. Private to "bis": is. Private to "but": tu.
"bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "but" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bis" and "but" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bis" or "but"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bis" and "but".
- Full dictionary entry for "bis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "but" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,669 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bis" and "but" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bis". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #48,669 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.