aha vs an, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#32,044
“aha” frequency rank: #2,817
“an” frequency rank: 34861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	aha	an
Definition	ver	ligado, aceso:

Letter map: aha vs an

Shared letters muted; letters that set aha and an apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

aha

2 ch

Grammar separator: aha vs an

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: aha is anintj and ananadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aha is recorded at frequency rank #32,044, 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 34861, this pair ranks #32,299 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aha vs an

Shared letters: a. Private to "aha": h. Private to "an": n.

"aha" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "an" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aha" for "an" ever safe?

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "aha" or "an" show up more?

"an" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,817 in our Portuguese list, against #32,044 for "aha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "aha" and "an".

Full dictionary entry for "aha" 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 #32,299 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"aha" and "an" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs aha". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #32,299 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.