esvsevWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,631
“es” frequency rank
#26,740
“ev” frequency rank
29371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature es ev
Definition ele, ela, aquilo, pronome da terceira pessoa do neutro singular do caso nominativo. casa

Where the eye mixes es and ev

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

2 ch
es
2 ch
ev

Look-alike desk: es vs ev

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: es is /'ɛs/ ouvir ^(fonte ?) while ev is /ɛv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “es” becomes v in “ev”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

es is recorded at frequency rank #2,631, classified as apron, pronounced /'ɛs/ ouvir ^(fonte ?). ev is at rank #26,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɛv/.

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 29371, this pair ranks #39,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of es vs ev

Shared letters: e. Private to "es": s. Private to "ev": v.

"es" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ev" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "es" for "ev" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "es" is a pronoun and "ev" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "es" vs "ev" - which ranks higher?
"es" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,631 in our Portuguese list, against #26,740 for "ev". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "es" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ev" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "es" and "ev" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ear vs ev". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,287 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