obvsokWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ob is a pronoun, ok is a num, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ob” is a pronoun and “ok” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,692
“ob” frequency rank
#1,033
“ok” frequency rank
29725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ob ok
Definition eu, pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da primeira pessoa do singular; oito

Letter map: ob vs ok

Shared letters muted; letters that set ob and ok apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ob
2 ch
ok

Role in the sentence - ob and ok

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ob is apronoun and okanum. On the page they differ by a single letter - b in “ob” becomes k in “ok”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ob is recorded at frequency rank #28,692, classified as apron, pronounced /ob/. ok is at rank #1,033, tagged as anum.

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 29725, this pair ranks #38,845 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ob vs ok

Shared letters: o. Private to "ob": b. Private to "ok": k.

"ob" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ok" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ob" for "ok" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ob" is a pronoun and "ok" a num, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ob" or "ok" show up more?
"ok" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,033 in our Portuguese list, against #28,692 for "ob". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "ob" vs "ok" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ok" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,845 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ob" and "ok" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ob vs oni". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #38,845 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