pervspesTell them apart

Quick tell: per is a preposition, pes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#5,775
“per” frequency rank
#23,445
“pes” frequency rank
29220
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature per pes
Definition por cão

Letter map: per vs pes

Shared letters muted; letters that set per and pes apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
per
3 ch
pes

Role in the sentence - per and pes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: per is apreposition and pesanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “per” becomes s in “pes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #5,775, classified as aprep. 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 29220, this pair ranks #39,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of per vs pes

Shared letters: ep. Private to "per": r. Private to "pes": s.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "per" and "pes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "per" is a preposition and "pes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "per" or "pes" show up more?
"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,775 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

You've compared "per" and "pes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "per" 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 #39,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "per" and "pes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pes vs pix". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,476 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