elevserreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ele” and “erre” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38
“ele” frequency rank
#41,985
“erre” frequency rank
42023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ele erre
Definition pronome pessoal da terceira pessoa do singular nisto, nisso

Where the eye mixes ele and erre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ele
4 ch
erre

Look-alike desk: ele vs erre

A purely visual mix-up. ele (/ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/) and erre (/ˈɛrːɛ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ele is recorded at frequency rank #38, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/. erre is at rank #41,985, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈɛrːɛ/.

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 42023, this pair ranks #23,810 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ele vs erre

Shared letters: e. Private to "ele": l. Private to "erre": r.

"ele" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "erre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erreere · erer · rere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ele" and "erre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/ versus /ˈɛrːɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ele" vs "erre" - which ranks higher?
"ele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38 in our Portuguese list, against #41,985 for "erre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "erre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,810 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ele" and "erre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erre 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 #23,810 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