achavsashConfusable pair

Which to use

“acha” and “ash” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#547
“acha” frequency rank
#11,803
“ash” frequency rank
12350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acha ash
Definition cavaca cinza

Where the eye mixes acha and ash

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

4 ch
acha
3 ch
ash

Why the eye confuses acha with ash

A purely visual mix-up. acha (/ˈa.ʃɐ/) and ash (/æʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12350, 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/. ash is at rank #11,803, tagged as anoun, pronounced /æʃ/.

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 12350, this pair ranks #60,281 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acha vs ash

Shared letters: ah. Private to "acha": c. Private to "ash": s.

"acha" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "ash" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • achaacah · accha · achha · ahca · caha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acha" for "ash" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.ʃɐ/ versus /æʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acha" or "ash"?
"acha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #547 in our Portuguese list, against #11,803 for "ash". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,281 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acha" and "ash" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ash". 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 #60,281 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