então vs entes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“então” is an adverb and “entes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#120
“então” frequency rank: #12,238
“entes” frequency rank: 12358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	então	entes
Definition	naquele momento	plural de ente

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set então and entes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

então

5 ch

entes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: então is /ẽ.ˈtɐ̃w̃/ while entes is /ˈẽ.tes/. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

então is recorded at frequency rank #120, classified as anadv, pronounced /ẽ.ˈtɐ̃w̃/. entes is at rank #12,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈẽ.tes/.

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 12358, this pair ranks #60,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of então vs entes

Shared letters: ent. Private to "então": oã. Private to "entes": s.

"então" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "entes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

entes ← enets · enntes · entess · entse · enttes · etnes · netes

Frequency comparison

então#120

entes#12,238

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "então" and "entes" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "então" is an adverb and "entes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "então" or "entes"?

"então" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #120 in our Portuguese list, against #12,238 for "entes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering então vs entes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “então”; for a noun, it's “entes”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “então” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable