pregovsprimoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#17,890
“prego” frequency rank
#2,792
“primo” frequency rank
20682
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prego primo
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) tipo de número que só é divisível por um e por si mesmo

Letter map: prego vs primo

Shared letters muted; letters that set prego and primo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. prego and primo 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
primo

Role in the sentence - prego and primo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: prego is anoun and primoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20682, 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/. primo is at rank #2,792, 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 20682, this pair ranks #49,760 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prego vs primo

Shared letters: opr. Private to "prego": eg. Private to "primo": im.

"prego" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "primo" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prego ← pergo · pprego · preggo · preog · prgeo · prrego · rpego
  • primo ← pirmo · pprimo · primmo · priom · prmio · prrimo · rpimo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prego" and "primo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prego" is a noun and "primo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prego" or "primo"?
"primo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,792 in our Portuguese list, against #17,890 for "prego". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prego" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "primo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,760 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prego" and "primo" 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 #49,760 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