pregovspresoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: prego is a noun, preso is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“prego” is a noun and “preso” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,890
“prego” frequency rank
#1,020
“preso” frequency rank
18910
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prego preso
Definition objeto com corpo cilíndrico com uma das extremidades pontiaguda e outra achatada, usado para ser enfiado em paredes ou para unir duas peças (especialmente de madeira) encarceirado, levado à prisão

Letter map: prego vs preso

Shared letters muted; letters that set prego and preso apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. prego and preso follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
prego
5 ch
preso

Part-of-speech tell for prego / preso

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: prego is anoun and presoanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - g in “prego” becomes s in “preso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prego is recorded at frequency rank #17,890, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɾɛ.gu/. preso is at rank #1,020, tagged as anadj.

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 18910, this pair ranks #51,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prego vs preso

Shared letters: eopr. Private to "prego": g. Private to "preso": s.

"prego" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "preso" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prego ← pergo · pprego · preggo · preog · prgeo · prrego · rpego
  • preso ← perso · ppreso · preos · presso · prreso · prseo · rpeso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prego" and "preso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prego" is a noun and "preso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "prego" vs "preso" - which ranks higher?
"preso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,020 in our Portuguese list, against #17,890 for "prego". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "prego" and "preso".

  • Full dictionary entry for "prego" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "preso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prego" and "preso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prego vs proto". 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 #51,960 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