bom vs by, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#96
“bom” frequency rank: #1,598
“by” frequency rank: 1694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	bom	by
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)	por;

Letter map: bom vs by

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

3 ch

bom

2 ch

Role in the sentence - bom and by

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bom is anadjective and byapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bom is recorded at frequency rank #96, classified as anadj. by is at rank #1,598, tagged as aprep.

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 1694, this pair ranks #73,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bom vs by

Shared letters: b. Private to "bom": mo. Private to "by": y.

"bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bom" and "by" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "bom" vs "by" - which ranks higher?

"bom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #96 in our Portuguese list, against #1,598 for "by". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bom" and "by".

Full dictionary entry for "bom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #73,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"bom" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bué vs by". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,824 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.