egovsetsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,872
“ego” frequency rank
#34,703
“ets” frequency rank
41575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ego ets
Definition primeira pessoa do singular, eu segunda pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo ésser

Where the eye mixes ego and ets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ego
3 ch
ets

Visual trap between ego and ets

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ego is /ˈe.ɡo/, /ˈe.ɡoː/ while ets is /ˈeʦ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ego is recorded at frequency rank #6,872, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈe.ɡo/, /ˈe.ɡoː/. ets is at rank #34,703, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈeʦ/.

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 41575, this pair ranks #24,330 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ego vs ets

Shared letters: e. Private to "ego": go. Private to "ets": st.

"ego" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ets" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ego" for "ets" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ego" is a pronoun and "ets" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ego" or "ets"?
"ego" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,872 in our Portuguese list, against #34,703 for "ets". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ego" and "ets" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ego" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,330 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ego" and "ets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "être vs ets". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #24,330 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