Which to use
“ah” is an intj and “an” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #640
- “ah” frequency rank
- #2,817
- “an” frequency rank
- 3457
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ah | an |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | exprime admiração | ligado, aceso: |
Letter map: ah vs an
Shared letters muted; letters that set ah and an apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for ah / an
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ah is anintj and ananadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - h in “ah” becomes n in “an”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ah is recorded at frequency rank #640, classified as anintj. an is at rank #2,817, tagged as anadv, pronounced /an/.
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 3457, this pair ranks #71,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ah vs an
Shared letters: a. Private to "ah": h. Private to "an": n.
"ah" · 2 letters · shape VC · "an" · 2 letters · shape VC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ah" and "an" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ah" or "an" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "ah" vs "an" 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 "an" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #71,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ah" and "an" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs an". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #71,694 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.