arevsashConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,038
“are” frequency rank
#11,803
“ash” frequency rank
15841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature are ash
Definition unidade de medida de área equivalente a 100 metros quadrados cinza

Where the eye mixes are and ash

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

3 ch
are
3 ch
ash

Look-alike desk: are vs ash

A purely visual mix-up. are (/ˈa.ɾe/) and ash (/æʃ/) 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 15841, 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/. ash is at rank #11,803, tagged as anoun, pronounced /æʃ/.

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 15841, this pair ranks #55,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of are vs ash

Shared letters: a. Private to "are": er. Private to "ash": hs.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ash" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "are" for "ash" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.ɾe/ versus /æʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "are" or "ash"?
"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,038 in our Portuguese list, against #11,803 for "ash". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "are" and "ash" 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 "ash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "are" and "ash" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ash". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #55,883 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