obavsoniWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#20,674
“oba” frequency rank
#49,618
“oni” frequency rank
70292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oba oni
Definition ambos, um e outro, uma e outra pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural de gênero masculino pessoal, eles

Letter map: oba vs oni

Shared letters muted; letters that set oba and oni apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. oba and oni follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
oba
3 ch
oni

Part-of-speech tell for oba / oni

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: oba is anum and oniapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oba is recorded at frequency rank #20,674, classified as anum, pronounced /ˈʔɔba/ ouvir^(fonte ?). 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 70292, this pair ranks #3,669 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of oba vs oni

Shared letters: o. Private to "oba": ab. Private to "oni": in.

"oba" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "oni" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "oba" and "oni" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oba" is a num and "oni" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "oba" or "oni" show up more?
"oba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,674 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.

What to do next

Pair "oba" vs "oni" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oba" 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 #3,669 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oba" and "oni" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oni vs ons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,669 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