pepevspesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,140
“pepe” frequency rank
#23,445
“pes” frequency rank
41585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pepe pes
Definition pimenta cão

Where the eye mixes pepe and pes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pepe runs 4 letters (CVCV) against pes's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pepe
3 ch
pes

Why the eye confuses pepe with pes

A purely visual mix-up. pepe (/'pe.pe/) and pes (/ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?)) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pepe is recorded at frequency rank #18,140, classified as anoun, pronounced /'pe.pe/. pes is at rank #23,445, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 41585, this pair ranks #24,314 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pepe vs pes

Shared letters: ep. Private to "pepe": -. Private to "pes": s.

"pepe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pepe ← eppe · peep · peppe · ppee · ppepe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pepe" for "pes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/'pe.pe/ versus /ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?)) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pepe" or "pes"?
"pepe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,140 in our Portuguese list, against #23,445 for "pes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pepe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,314 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pepe" and "pes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pes vs pix". 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 #24,314 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