achavsakaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: acha is a noun, aka is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acha” is a noun and “aka” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#547
“acha” frequency rank
#15,975
“aka” frequency rank
16522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acha aka
Definition cavaca dirigir, guiar (um veículo):

Where the eye mixes acha and aka

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
acha
3 ch
aka

Why the eye confuses acha with aka

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acha is /ˈa.ʃɐ/ while aka is /ˈaː.g̊a/, /ouːg̊/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acha is recorded at frequency rank #547, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ʃɐ/. aka is at rank #15,975, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈaː.g̊a/, /ouːg̊/.

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 16522, this pair ranks #54,983 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acha vs aka

Shared letters: a. Private to "acha": ch. Private to "aka": k.

"acha" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "aka" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • achaacah · accha · achha · ahca · caha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acha" for "aka" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acha" is a noun and "aka" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acha" or "aka"?
"acha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #547 in our Portuguese list, against #15,975 for "aka". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "acha" and "aka" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aka" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,983 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acha" and "aka" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs aka". 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 #54,983 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