bom vs but, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#96
“bom” frequency rank: #7,254
“but” frequency rank: 7350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	bom	but
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)	mas, porém, todavia

Letter map: bom vs but

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

3 ch

bom

3 ch

but

Grammar separator: bom vs but

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bom is anadjective and butaconjunction. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bom is recorded at frequency rank #96, classified as anadj. 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 7350, this pair ranks #66,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bom vs but

Shared letters: b. Private to "bom": mo. Private to "but": tu.

"bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "but" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bom" and "but" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bom" is an adjective and "but" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "bom" or "but"?

"bom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #96 in our Portuguese list, against #7,254 for "but". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "bom" 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 #66,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"bom" and "but" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bué vs but". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.