afãvsalasConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#47,702
“afã” frequency rank
#17,688
“alas” frequency rank
65390
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afã alas
Definition azáfama; ânsia; lida: forma plural de ala:

Where the eye mixes afã and alas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. afã runs 3 letters (VCV) against alas's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
afã
4 ch
alas

Look-alike desk: afã vs alas

A purely visual mix-up. afã (/ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/) and alas (/ˈa.lɐs/) 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 65390, 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/. alas is at rank #17,688, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.lɐs/.

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 65390, this pair ranks #5,402 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of afã vs alas

Shared letters: a. Private to "afã": fã. Private to "alas": ls.

"afã" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "alas" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alas ← aals · alass · allas · alsa · laas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "afã" for "alas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/ versus /ˈa.lɐs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "afã" vs "alas" - which ranks higher?
"alas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,688 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "afã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,402 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afã" and "alas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs afã". 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 #5,402 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