agi vs ao, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,311
“agi” frequency rank: #27
“ao” frequency rank: 36338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	agi	ao
Definition	agir, proceder	contração da preposição a com o artigo definido o

Where the eye mixes agi and ao

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

agi

2 ch

Look-alike desk: agi vs ao

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agi is /ˈa.ɡi/ while ao is /aw/. 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 contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36338, 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/. ao is at rank #27, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /aw/.

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 36338, this pair ranks #30,509 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agi vs ao

Shared letters: a. Private to "agi": gi. Private to "ao": o.

"agi" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ao" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agi" and "ao" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agi" is a verb and "ao" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "agi" or "ao" show up more?

"ao" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27 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 "ao" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #30,509 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"agi" and "ao" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs agi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,509 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.