ah vs ak, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ah” is an intj and “ak” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#640
“ah” frequency rank: #15,974
“ak” frequency rank: 16614
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ah	ak
Definition	exprime admiração	irmão (que não é o primogênito)

Letter map: ah vs ak

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

2 ch

Grammar separator: ah vs ak

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ah is anintj and akanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - h in “ah” becomes k in “ak”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ah is recorded at frequency rank #640, classified as anintj. ak is at rank #15,974, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ák̚/.

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 16614, this pair ranks #54,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ah vs ak

Shared letters: a. Private to "ah": h. Private to "ak": k.

"ah" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ak" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ah" and "ak" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ah" is an intj and "ak" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "ah" vs "ak" - which ranks higher?

"ah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #640 in our Portuguese list, against #15,974 for "ak". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "ah" vs "ak" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ak" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #54,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ah" and "ak" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ak". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.