prémiovsprévioWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,794
“prémio” frequency rank
#10,074
“prévio” frequency rank
13868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prémio prévio
Definition recompensa dito ou feito antes de algo; antecipado; anterior; preliminar

Where the eye mixes prémio and prévio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. prémio and prévio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
prémio
6 ch
prévio

Visual trap between prémio and prévio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prémio is /ˈpɾɛ.mju/ while prévio is /ˈpɾɛ.vju/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “prémio” becomes v in “prévio”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prémio is recorded at frequency rank #3,794, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɾɛ.mju/. prévio is at rank #10,074, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɾɛ.vju/.

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 13868, this pair ranks #58,346 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prémio vs prévio

Shared letters: iopré. Private to "prémio": m. Private to "prévio": v.

"prémio" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "prévio" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prémio" and "prévio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prémio" is a noun and "prévio" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "prémio" or "prévio" show up more?
"prémio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,794 in our Portuguese list, against #10,074 for "prévio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prémio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prévio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,346 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prémio" and "prévio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prévio vs provido". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,346 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