aquivsatumWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: aqui is a adverb, atum is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aqui” is an adverb and “atum” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#63
“aqui” frequency rank
#16,684
“atum” frequency rank
16747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aqui atum
Definition lugar onde situa-se o interlocutor peixe da família dos Escombrídeos muito usado na alimentação quer em fresco, quer em conserva

Where the eye mixes aqui and atum

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

4 ch
aqui
4 ch
atum

Look-alike desk: aqui vs atum

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aqui is /a.ˈki/ while atum is /ɐ.ˈtũ/. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aqui is recorded at frequency rank #63, classified as anadv, pronounced /a.ˈki/. atum is at rank #16,684, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtũ/.

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 16747, this pair ranks #54,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aqui vs atum

Shared letters: au. Private to "aqui": iq. Private to "atum": mt.

"aqui" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "atum" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aqui ← aqiu · aqqui · auqi · qaui
  • atum ← atmu · attum · atumm · autm · taum

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aqui" for "atum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aqui" is an adverb and "atum" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "aqui" vs "atum" - which ranks higher?
"aqui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #63 in our Portuguese list, against #16,684 for "atum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aqui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,707 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aqui" and "atum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs atum". 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 #54,707 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