afãvsalaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,702
“afã” frequency rank
#6,137
“ala” frequency rank
53839
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afã ala
Definition azáfama; ânsia; lida: conjunto de objetos dispostos de maneira a formar uma linha

Where the eye mixes afã and ala

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. afã and ala follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
afã
3 ch
ala

Look-alike desk: afã vs ala

A purely visual mix-up. afã (/ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/) and ala (/ˈa.lɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53839, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afã is recorded at frequency rank #47,702, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/. ala is at rank #6,137, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.lɐ/.

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 53839, this pair ranks #11,741 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of afã vs ala

Shared letters: a. Private to "afã": fã. Private to "ala": l.

"afã" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ala" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "afã" and "ala" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/ versus /ˈa.lɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "afã" or "ala"?
"ala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,137 in our Portuguese list, against #47,702 for "afã". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "afã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ala" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,741 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afã" and "ala" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs afã". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #11,741 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