aba vs ao, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“aba” is a noun and “ao” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,719
“aba” frequency rank: #27
“ao” frequency rank: 15746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	aba	ao
Definition	parte saliente da beira das vestimentas, ou outros materiais de pano, para uso das pessoas, tais como vestido, paletó, toldo etc	contração da preposição a com o artigo definido o

Where the eye mixes aba and ao

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

aba

2 ch

Why the eye confuses aba with ao

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aba is /ˈa.bɐ/ while ao is /aw/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aba is recorded at frequency rank #15,719, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.bɐ/. ao is at rank #27, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /aw/.

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 15746, this pair ranks #56,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aba vs ao

Shared letters: a. Private to "aba": b. Private to "ao": o.

"aba" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ao" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aba" for "ao" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aba" is a noun and "ao" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "aba" vs "ao" - which ranks higher?

"ao" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27 in our Portuguese list, against #15,719 for "aba". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "aba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ao" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #56,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"aba" and "ao" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aba vs acs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.