amo vs are, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#663
“amo” frequency rank: #4,038
“are” frequency rank: 4701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	amo	are
Definition	patrão	unidade de medida de área equivalente a 100 metros quadrados

Where the eye mixes amo and are

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

amo

3 ch

are

Why the eye confuses amo with are

A purely visual mix-up. amo (/ˈɐ.mu/) and are (/ˈa.ɾe/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amo is recorded at frequency rank #663, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɐ.mu/. are is at rank #4,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɾe/.

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 4701, this pair ranks #70,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of amo vs are

Shared letters: a. Private to "amo": mo. Private to "are": er.

"amo" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "amo" for "are" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/ˈɐ.mu/ versus /ˈa.ɾe/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "amo" or "are"?

"amo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #663 in our Portuguese list, against #4,038 for "are". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "amo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #70,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"amo" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs are". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #70,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.