earvsegoConfusable pair

Quick tell: ear is a adjective, ego is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ear” is an adjective and “ego” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,574
“ear” frequency rank
#6,872
“ego” frequency rank
46446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ear ego
Definition coclear primeira pessoa do singular, eu

Letter map: ear vs ego

Shared letters muted; letters that set ear and ego apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ear
3 ch
ego

Role in the sentence - ear and ego

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ear is anadjective and egoapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ear is recorded at frequency rank #39,574, classified as anadj. ego is at rank #6,872, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈe.ɡo/, /ˈe.ɡoː/.

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 46446, this pair ranks #18,858 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ear vs ego

Shared letters: e. Private to "ear": ar. Private to "ego": go.

"ear" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "ego" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ear" for "ego" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ear" is an adjective and "ego" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ear" vs "ego" - which ranks higher?
"ego" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,872 in our Portuguese list, against #39,574 for "ear". 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 "ear" and "ego". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ego" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,858 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ear" and "ego" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ear vs être". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,858 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