earlvserConfusable pair

Quick tell: earl is a noun, er is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“earl” is a noun and “er” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,095
“earl” frequency rank
#11,866
“er” frequency rank
26961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature earl er
Definition conde ele, aquele, aquilo, terceira pessoa do masculino singular do caso nominativo

Letter map: earl vs er

Shared letters muted; letters that set earl and er apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
earl
2 ch
er

Role in the sentence - earl and er

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: earl is anoun and erapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

earl is recorded at frequency rank #15,095, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɝl/. er is at rank #11,866, tagged as apron.

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 26961, this pair ranks #42,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of earl vs er

Shared letters: er. Private to "earl": al. Private to "er": -.

"earl" · 4 letters · shape VVCC  ·  "er" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • earlaerl · ealr · earll · earrl

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "earl" for "er" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "earl" is a noun and "er" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "earl" vs "er" - which ranks higher?
"er" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,866 in our Portuguese list, against #15,095 for "earl". 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 "earl" and "er".

  • Full dictionary entry for "earl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "er" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "earl" and "er" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "earl vs être". 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 #42,087 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