alemãvsalemãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“alemã” and “alemão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,970
“alemã” frequency rank
#2,348
“alemão” frequency rank
7318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alemã alemão
Definition forma feminina de alemão natural da Alemanha

Letter map: alemã vs alemão

Shared letters muted; letters that set alemã and alemão apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. alemã runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against alemão's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
alemã
6 ch
alemão

Corpus notes: alemã and alemão

alemã and alemão are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “alemã” sits inside “alemão”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alemã is recorded at frequency rank #4,970, classified as anadj. alemão is at rank #2,348, tagged as anadj, pronounced /a.le.ˈmãw/.

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 7318, this pair ranks #66,834 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of alemã vs alemão

Shared letters: aelmã. Private to "alemã": -. Private to "alemão": o.

"alemã" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "alemão" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alemã" for "alemão" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “alemã” sits inside “alemão”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "alemã" or "alemão" show up more?
"alemão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,348 in our Portuguese list, against #4,970 for "alemã". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "alemã" vs "alemão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alemã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alemão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,834 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alemã" and "alemão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alemã vs ateia". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,834 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