Which to use
“bom” is an adjective and “boy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #96
- “bom” frequency rank
- #3,884
- “boy” frequency rank
- 3980
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bom | boy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que corresponde plenamente ao que é exigido, desejado ou esperado quanto à sua natureza, adequação, função, eficácia, funcionamento etc. (falando de ser ou coisa) | garoto, rapaz, jovem |
Letter map: bom vs boy
Shared letters muted; letters that set bom and boy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for bom / boy
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bom is anadjective and boyanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “bom” becomes y in “boy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3980, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bom is recorded at frequency rank #96, classified as anadj. boy is at rank #3,884, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɔɪ/.
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 3980, this pair ranks #71,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bom vs boy
Shared letters: bo. Private to "bom": m. Private to "boy": y.
"bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "boy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bom" and "boy" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "bom" vs "boy" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "bom" and "boy". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "bom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #71,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bom" and "boy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boy vs bué". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #71,070 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.