calhavscháWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,453
“calha” frequency rank
#2,711
“chá” frequency rank
33164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calha chá
Definition amarelinha planta da família das Teáceas, originária do Extremo Oriente, cultivada por causa de suas folhas que contêm um alcalóide, a teína (cafeína do chá)

Where the eye mixes calha and chá

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
calha
3 ch
chá

Why the eye confuses calha with chá

A purely visual mix-up. calha (/ˈka.ʎɐ/) and chá (/ˈʃa/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calha is recorded at frequency rank #30,453, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ʎɐ/. chá is at rank #2,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃa/.

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 33164, this pair ranks #34,429 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of calha vs chá

Shared letters: ch. Private to "calha": al. Private to "chá": á.

"calha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "chá" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • calhaaclha · cahla · calah · calhha · callha · ccalha · claha

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "calha" and "chá" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.ʎɐ/ versus /ˈʃa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "calha" vs "chá" - which ranks higher?
"chá" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,711 in our Portuguese list, against #30,453 for "calha". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "calha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chá" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,429 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calha" and "chá" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calha vs canja". 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 #34,429 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