ahvsaiTell them apart

Which to use

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

#640
“ah” frequency rank
#1,090
“ai” frequency rank
1730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ah ai
Definition exprime admiração expressa dor física ou sentimental

Letter map: ah vs ai

Shared letters muted; letters that set ah and ai apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ah
2 ch
ai

Spelling & dictionary notes on ah vs ai

ah and ai are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - h in “ah” becomes i in “ai”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ah is recorded at frequency rank #640, classified as anintj. ai is at rank #1,090, tagged as anintj, pronounced /aj/.

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 1730, this pair ranks #73,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ah vs ai

Shared letters: a. Private to "ah": h. Private to "ai": i.

"ah" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ai" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ah" and "ai" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - h in “ah” becomes i in “ai”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "ah" vs "ai" - which ranks higher?
"ah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #640 in our Portuguese list, against #1,090 for "ai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ah" and "ai".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ah" and "ai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ai". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,777 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