pd vs per, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pd” is an abbrev and “per” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,766
“pd” frequency rank: #5,775
“per” frequency rank: 29541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pd	per
Definition	pode, terceira pessoa do singular no presente do indicativo do verbo poder	por

Letter map: pd vs per

Shared letters muted; letters that set pd and per apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

per

Grammar separator: pd vs per

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pd is anabbrev and perapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pd is recorded at frequency rank #23,766, classified as anabbrev. per is at rank #5,775, tagged as aprep.

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 29541, this pair ranks #39,056 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pd vs per

Shared letters: p. Private to "pd": d. Private to "per": er.

"pd" · 2 letters · shape CC · "per" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pd" and "per" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pd" is an abbrev and "per" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "pd" vs "per" - which ranks higher?

"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,775 in our Portuguese list, against #23,766 for "pd". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "pd" vs "per" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "pd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "per" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #39,056 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"pd" and "per" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pd vs pix". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,056 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.