Which to use
“aldeia” is a noun and “alheio” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,300
- “aldeia” frequency rank
- #15,729
- “alheio” frequency rank
- 18029
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aldeia | alheio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pequena povoação rústica sem jurisdição própria | que pertence a outros: |
Where the eye mixes aldeia and alheio
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. aldeia and alheio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses aldeia with alheio
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aldeia is /aɫ.ˈdɐj.ɐ/ while alheio is /ɐ.ˈʎɐj.u/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aldeia is recorded at frequency rank #2,300, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɫ.ˈdɐj.ɐ/. alheio is at rank #15,729, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.ˈʎɐj.u/.
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 18029, this pair ranks #53,063 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of aldeia vs alheio
Shared letters: aeil. Private to "aldeia": d. Private to "alheio": ho.
"aldeia" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "alheio" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "aldeia" for "alheio" ever safe?
Which is more common, "aldeia" or "alheio"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "aldeia" and "alheio" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "aldeia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alheio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,063 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aldeia" and "alheio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aldeia vs apneia". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #53,063 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.