Which to use
“el” is an article and “em” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,143
- “el” frequency rank
- #7
- “em” frequency rank
- 1150
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | el | em |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | o, artigo definido masculino: | exprime a ideia de: |
Letter map: el vs em
Shared letters muted; letters that set el and em apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for el / em
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: el is anarticle and emapreposition. On the page they differ by a single letter - l in “el” becomes m in “em”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
el is recorded at frequency rank #1,143, classified as anarticle. em is at rank #7, tagged as aprep, pronounced /ɐj̃/.
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 1150, this pair ranks #74,461 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of el vs em
Shared letters: e. Private to "el": l. Private to "em": m.
"el" · 2 letters · shape VC · "em" · 2 letters · shape VC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "el" for "em" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "el" or "em" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "el" and "em". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "el" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "em" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,461 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "el" and "em" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "el vs elio". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #74,461 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.