Which to use
“John” and “José” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #898
- “John” frequency rank
- #567
- “José” frequency rank
- 1465
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | John | José |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | prenome masculino, equivalente ao português João | José |
Letter map: John vs José
Shared letters muted; letters that set John and José apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Pair insight - John / José
John and José are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
John is recorded at frequency rank #898, classified as anoun. José is at rank #567, tagged as anoun, pronounced /xo.sé/..
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 1465, this pair ranks #74,105 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of John vs José
Shared letters: jo. Private to "John": hn. Private to "José": sé.
"John" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "José" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- John ← jhon · jjohn · johhn · johnn · jonh · ojhn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "John" for "José" ever safe?
Frequency check: "John" vs "José" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "John" and "José".
- Full dictionary entry for "John" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "José" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,105 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "John" and "José" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "John vs join". 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 #74,105 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.