bulavsbutWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#15,753
“bula” frequency rank
#7,254
“but” frequency rank
23007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bula but
Definition selo para documentos emitidos por papas ou outros soberanos mas, porém, todavia

Letter map: bula vs but

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

4 ch
bula
3 ch
but

Grammar separator: bula vs but

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bula is anoun and butaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bula is recorded at frequency rank #15,753, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbu.lɐ/. 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 23007, this pair ranks #46,902 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bula vs but

Shared letters: bu. Private to "bula": al. Private to "but": t.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bulabbula · blua · bual · bulla · ubla

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bula" and "but" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bula" is a noun and "but" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bula" 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 #15,753 for "bula". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bula" and "but".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bula" 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 #46,902 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bula" and "but" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bula". 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 #46,902 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