pesvspoisTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#23,445
“pes” frequency rank
#251
“pois” frequency rank
23696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pes pois
Definition cão logo, pelo que, portanto, por consequência, por conseguinte:

Where the eye mixes pes and pois

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
pes
4 ch
pois

Look-alike desk: pes vs pois

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pes is /ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?) while pois is /ˈpojʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pes is recorded at frequency rank #23,445, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?). pois is at rank #251, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ˈpojʃ/.

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 23696, this pair ranks #46,088 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pes vs pois

Shared letters: ps. Private to "pes": e. Private to "pois": io.

"pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poisopis · pios · poiss · posi · ppois

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pes" for "pois" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pes" is a noun and "pois" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pes" or "pois"?
"pois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #251 in our Portuguese list, against #23,445 for "pes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pes" and "pois" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,088 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pes" and "pois" 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 #46,088 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