estevsestoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#77
“este” frequency rank
#22,970
“esto” frequency rank
23047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature este esto
Definition relativo a alguém ou alguma coisa que esteja perto de quem fala: agitação das águas do mar; maré; preamar

Letter map: este vs esto

Shared letters muted; letters that set este and esto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
este
4 ch
esto

Part-of-speech tell for este / esto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: este is apronoun and estoanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “este” becomes o in “esto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

este is recorded at frequency rank #77, classified as apron. esto is at rank #22,970, tagged as anoun.

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 23047, this pair ranks #46,851 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of este vs esto

Shared letters: est. Private to "este": -. Private to "esto": o.

"este" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "esto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • esteeset · esste · estte · etse
  • estoesot · essto · estto · etso · seto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "este" and "esto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "este" is a pronoun and "esto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "este" or "esto" show up more?
"este" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our Portuguese list, against #22,970 for "esto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "este" and "esto". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "este" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "esto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,851 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "este" and "esto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elio vs esto". 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 #46,851 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