bufovsbutWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bufo is a noun, but is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#45,221
“bufo” frequency rank
#7,254
“but” frequency rank
52475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bufo but
Definition sapo mas, porém, todavia

Letter map: bufo vs but

Shared letters muted; letters that set bufo and but apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
bufo
3 ch
but

Role in the sentence - bufo and but

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bufo is anoun and butaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bufo is recorded at frequency rank #45,221, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbu.fɔ/. 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 52475, this pair ranks #12,730 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bufo vs but

Shared letters: bu. Private to "bufo": fo. Private to "but": t.

"bufo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "but" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bufobbufo · bfuo · buffo · buof · ubfo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bufo" and "but" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bufo" is a noun and "but" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bufo" or "but" show up more?
"but" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,254 in our Portuguese list, against #45,221 for "bufo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bufo" 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 #12,730 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bufo" and "but" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bué vs bufo". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #12,730 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