qu

[ɡu]

/[ɡu]/ noun

The verdict

“qu” sits in 10 confusable pairs (corpus #6,802) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#6,802
frequency rank, Portuguese
129
“Q” headwords
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - cisne

Corpus desk

Index PT-qu · qu · Portuguese

qu · rank #6,802 · 0 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,802
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 129
  • PHOTO-FINISH questionar

Nearest frequency peer: questionar (+2 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “qu”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “qu” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

qu vs que
67% similar
qu vs qui
67% similar
qu vs quem
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for qu
PropertyValue
Headwordqu
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ɡu]
Letters2
Frequency rank#6,802
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “qu”

Da esquerda para a direita: o pouco que carrega a fala diária, depois a cauda longa quase invisível.qucai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

A escala é logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× mais rara). Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “questionar” (#6,804), “racista” (#6,805), “povoado” (#6,798). Entre 129 lemas com “Q”, “qu” fica em #6,802. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for qu is neighbouring look-alikes ("que", "qui", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ɡu]. Frequency #6,802 among 129 “Q” headwords. Gloss: "cisne".

qu doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "que", "qui", "quem", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct Portuguese form is qu, spelled Q-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    cisne

Synonyms

qu quşu

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "qu"?
"qu" is spelled Q-U. The IPA pronunciation is [ɡu].
What does "qu" mean?
As a noun, "qu" means: cisne
What words are commonly confused with "qu"?
"qu" is commonly confused with "que", "qui", "quem". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "qu"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "qu" is [ɡu]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "qu" come from?
"qu" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list