are vs asa, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#4,038
“are” frequency rank: #7,104
“asa” frequency rank: 11142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	are	asa
Definition	unidade de medida de área equivalente a 100 metros quadrados	membro de um animal que serve para o voo

Where the eye mixes are and asa

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

3 ch

are

3 ch

asa

Visual trap between are and asa

A purely visual mix-up. are (/ˈa.ɾe/) and asa (/ˈa.zɐ/) 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 11142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

are is recorded at frequency rank #4,038, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɾe/. 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 11142, this pair ranks #61,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of are vs asa

Shared letters: a. Private to "are": er. Private to "asa": s.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "asa" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,038 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "are" and "asa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "are" 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 #61,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"are" and "asa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs asa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #61,774 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.