onsvsopaConfusable pair

Quick tell: ons is a pronoun, opa is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ons” is a pronoun and “opa” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,564
“ons” frequency rank
#11,690
“opa” frequency rank
60254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ons opa
Definition pronome pessoal neutro do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural acusa o reconhecimento de um pequeno erro

Letter map: ons vs opa

Shared letters muted; letters that set ons and opa apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ons
3 ch
opa

Grammar separator: ons vs opa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ons is apronoun and opaanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ons is recorded at frequency rank #48,564, classified as apron, pronounced /ons/. opa is at rank #11,690, tagged as anintj.

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 60254, this pair ranks #7,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ons vs opa

Shared letters: o. Private to "ons": ns. Private to "opa": ap.

"ons" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "opa" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ons" for "opa" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ons" is a pronoun and "opa" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ons" or "opa"?
"opa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,690 in our Portuguese list, against #48,564 for "ons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ons" and "opa".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "opa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ons" and "opa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oni vs ons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #7,743 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