BR vs but, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“BR” is a noun and “but” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,004
“BR” frequency rank: #7,254
“but” frequency rank: 9258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	BR	but
Definition	rodovia de competência federal, da União	mas, porém, todavia

Letter map: BR vs but

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

2 ch

3 ch

but

Part-of-speech tell for BR / but

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: BR is anoun and butaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

BR is recorded at frequency rank #2,004, classified as anoun. 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 9258, this pair ranks #64,235 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of BR vs but

Shared letters: b. Private to "BR": r. Private to "but": tu.

"BR" · 2 letters · shape CC · "but" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "BR" and "but" be used interchangeably?

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

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

"BR" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,004 in our Portuguese list, against #7,254 for "but". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "BR" and "but". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "BR" 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 #64,235 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"BR" and "but" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bué vs but". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,235 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.