chávscosaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,711
“chá” frequency rank
#31,312
“cosa” frequency rank
34023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes chá and cosa

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

3 ch
chá
4 ch
cosa

Why the eye confuses chá with cosa

A purely visual mix-up. chá (/ˈʃa/) and cosa (/'kɔ.sa/) 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 34023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chá is recorded at frequency rank #2,711, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃa/. cosa is at rank #31,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'kɔ.sa/.

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 34023, this pair ranks #33,349 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chá vs cosa

Shared letters: c. Private to "chá": . Private to "cosa": aos.

"chá" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cosaccosa · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chá" and "cosa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃa/ versus /'kɔ.sa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chá" or "cosa"?
"chá" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,711 in our Portuguese list, against #31,312 for "cosa". 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 "chá" and "cosa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chá" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,349 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chá" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conca vs cosa". 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 #33,349 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