agivságuaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,311
“agi” frequency rank
#254
“água” frequency rank
36565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agi água
Definition agir, proceder substância (H₂O) líquida e incolor, insípida e inodora, essencial para a vida da maior parte dos organismos vivos e excelente solvente para muitas outras substâncias; óxido de hidrogênio

Where the eye mixes agi and água

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

3 ch
agi
4 ch
água

Why the eye confuses agi with água

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agi is /ˈa.ɡi/ while água is /ˈa.gwɐ/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agi is recorded at frequency rank #36,311, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈa.ɡi/. água is at rank #254, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.gwɐ/.

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 36565, this pair ranks #30,200 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agi vs água

Shared letters: ag. Private to "agi": i. Private to "água": uá.

"agi" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "água" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agi" for "água" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agi" is a verb and "água" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agi" or "água"?
"água" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #254 in our Portuguese list, against #36,311 for "agi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "água" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,200 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agi" and "água" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs agi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,200 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