cairvscamaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,522
“cair” frequency rank
#982
“cama” frequency rank
2504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cair cama
Definition dar queda móvel, normalmente plano e macio, usado para dormir

Letter map: cair vs cama

Shared letters muted; letters that set cair and cama apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cair
4 ch
cama

Part-of-speech tell for cair / cama

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cair is averb and camaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cair is recorded at frequency rank #1,522, classified as averb. cama is at rank #982, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɐ.mɐ/.

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 2504, this pair ranks #72,870 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cair vs cama

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cair": ir. Private to "cama": m.

"cair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cairacir · cairr · cari · ccair · ciar
  • camaacma · caam · camma · ccama · cmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cair" and "cama" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cair" is a verb and "cama" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cair" or "cama" show up more?
"cama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #982 in our Portuguese list, against #1,522 for "cair". 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 "cair" and "cama".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,870 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cair" and "cama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cair vs coagir". 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 #72,870 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