caídovscairWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: caído is a adjective, cair is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caído” is an adjective and “cair” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,017
“caído” frequency rank
#1,522
“cair” frequency rank
9539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caído cair
Definition que caiu dar queda

Letter map: caído vs cair

Shared letters muted; letters that set caído and cair apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. caído runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against cair's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
caído
4 ch
cair

Part-of-speech tell for caído / cair

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caído is anadjective and cairaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caído is recorded at frequency rank #8,017, classified as anadj. cair is at rank #1,522, tagged as averb.

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 9539, this pair ranks #63,847 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of caído vs cair

Shared letters: ac. Private to "caído": doí. Private to "cair": ir.

"caído" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "cair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cair ← acir · cairr · cari · ccair · ciar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caído" and "cair" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caído" is an adjective and "cair" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "caído" vs "cair" - which ranks higher?
"cair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,522 in our Portuguese list, against #8,017 for "caído". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "caído" and "cair".

  • Full dictionary entry for "caído" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cair" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,847 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caído" and "cair" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caído vs ciao". 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 #63,847 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