Which to use
“cais” and “can” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,845
- “cais” frequency rank
- #4,535
- “can” frequency rank
- 15380
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cais | can |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | lugar à beira-mar, na margem do rio, nas estações de caminho-de-ferro ou do metropolitano apropriado para o embarque e desembarque de pessoas ou mercadorias | cão |
Where the eye mixes cais and can
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cais vs can
A purely visual mix-up. cais (/ˈkajʃ/) and can (/kaŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cais is recorded at frequency rank #10,845, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkajʃ/. can is at rank #4,535, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaŋ/.
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 15380, this pair ranks #56,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cais vs can
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cais": is. Private to "can": n.
"cais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "can" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cais ← acis · caiss · casi · ccais · cias
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cais" and "can" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cais" or "can" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "can" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cais" and "can" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "can vs chau". 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 #56,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.