úvsutWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ú is a adverb, ut is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ú” is an adverb and “ut” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,175
“ú” frequency rank
#39,908
“ut” frequency rank
84083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ú ut
Definition onde como

Letter map: ú vs ut

Shared letters muted; letters that set ú and ut apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

1 ch
ú
2 ch
ut

Part-of-speech tell for ú / ut

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ú is anadverb and utaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ú is recorded at frequency rank #44,175, classified as anadv. ut is at rank #39,908, tagged as aconj.

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 84083, this pair ranks #842 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ú vs ut

Shared letters: none. Private to "ú": ú. Private to "ut": tu.

"ú" · 1 letters · shape V  ·  "ut" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ú" and "ut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ú" is an adverb and "ut" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ú" or "ut"?
"ut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,908 in our Portuguese list, against #44,175 for "ú". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ú" and "ut".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ú" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #842 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ú" and "ut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs UBS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #842 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