Which to use
“ontem” is an adverb and “ordem” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #525
- “ontem” frequency rank
- #609
- “ordem” frequency rank
- 1134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ontem | ordem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | no dia anterior ao de hoje | boa organização das coisas |
Letter map: ontem vs ordem
Shared letters muted; letters that set ontem and ordem apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ontem and ordem follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Part-of-speech tell for ontem / ordem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ontem is anadverb and ordemanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ontem is recorded at frequency rank #525, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈõ.tɐ̃j̃/. ordem is at rank #609, tagged as anoun.
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 1134, this pair ranks #74,483 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ontem vs ordem
Shared letters: emo. Private to "ontem": nt. Private to "ordem": dr.
"ontem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "ordem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ontem" for "ordem" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ontem" or "ordem"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ontem" and "ordem".
- Full dictionary entry for "ontem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ordem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,483 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ontem" and "ordem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "orbe vs ordem". 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 #74,483 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.