amvsasaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: am is a article, asa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“am” is an article and “asa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,705
“am” frequency rank
#7,104
“asa” frequency rank
9809
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature am asa
Definition o / a usado com substantivos masculinos no caso nominativo singular quando a palavra começar com as letra b, f, m, p membro de um animal que serve para o voo

Letter map: am vs asa

Shared letters muted; letters that set am and asa apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
am
3 ch
asa

Grammar separator: am vs asa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: am is anarticle and asaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

am is recorded at frequency rank #2,705, classified as anarticle. asa is at rank #7,104, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.zɐ/.

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 9809, this pair ranks #63,504 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of am vs asa

Shared letters: a. Private to "am": m. Private to "asa": s.

"am" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "asa" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "am" for "asa" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "am" is an article and "asa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "am" vs "asa" - which ranks higher?
"am" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,705 in our Portuguese list, against #7,104 for "asa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "am" vs "asa" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "am" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "asa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,504 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "am" and "asa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs asa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,504 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