ob vs oni, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ob” and “oni” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,692
“ob” frequency rank: #49,618
“oni” frequency rank: 78310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ob	oni
Definition	eu, pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da primeira pessoa do singular;	pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural de gênero masculino pessoal, eles

Letter map: ob vs oni

Shared letters muted; letters that set ob and oni apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. ob runs 2 letters (VC) against oni's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

2 ch

3 ch

oni

Spelling & dictionary notes on ob vs oni

ob and oni 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78310, 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/. oni is at rank #49,618, tagged as apron.

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 78310, this pair ranks #1,703 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ob vs oni

Shared letters: o. Private to "ob": b. Private to "oni": in.

"ob" · 2 letters · shape VC · "oni" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ob" for "oni" ever safe?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ob" or "oni" show up more?

"ob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,692 in our Portuguese list, against #49,618 for "oni". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ob" and "oni".

Full dictionary entry for "ob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "oni" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,703 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ob" and "oni" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oni vs ons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,703 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.