bonvsbónusTell them apart

Quick tell: bon is a adjective, bónus is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,479
“bon” frequency rank
#22,889
“bónus” frequency rank
33368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bon bónus
Definition bom bonificação

Letter map: bon vs bónus

Shared letters muted; letters that set bon and bónus apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. bon runs 3 letters (CVC) against bónus's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
bon
5 ch
bónus

Grammar separator: bon vs bónus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bon is anadjective and bónusanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bon is recorded at frequency rank #10,479, classified as anadj. bónus is at rank #22,889, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɔ.nuʃ/.

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 33368, this pair ranks #34,186 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bon vs bónus

Shared letters: bn. Private to "bon": o. Private to "bónus": suó.

"bon" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bónus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bon" and "bónus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bon" is an adjective and "bónus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bon" vs "bónus" - which ranks higher?
"bon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,479 in our Portuguese list, against #22,889 for "bónus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bon" and "bónus".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bónus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,186 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bon" and "bónus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baús vs bónus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #34,186 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