aiavsamiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: aia is a noun, ami is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aia” is a noun and “ami” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,961
“aia” frequency rank
#13,434
“ami” frequency rank
53395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aia ami
Definition criada para companhia amar, gostar de

Where the eye mixes aia and ami

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aia (VVV) and ami (VCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
aia
3 ch
ami

Why the eye confuses aia with ami

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aia is /ˈaj.ɐ/ while ami is /ˈa.mi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aia is recorded at frequency rank #39,961, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaj.ɐ/. ami is at rank #13,434, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈa.mi/.

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 53395, this pair ranks #12,055 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aia vs ami

Shared letters: ai. Private to "aia": -. Private to "ami": m.

"aia" · 3 letters · shape VVV  ·  "ami" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aia" and "ami" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aia" is a noun and "ami" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "aia" or "ami"?
"ami" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,434 in our Portuguese list, against #39,961 for "aia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ami" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,055 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aia" and "ami" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs aia". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #12,055 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