cham vs chato, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cham” is a noun and “chato” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,752
“cham” frequency rank: #4,619
“chato” frequency rank: 49371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cham	chato
Definition	um certo tipo de autocrata	achatado

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cham and chato apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

cham

5 ch

chato

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cham is /kæm/ while chato is /ˈʃa.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cham is recorded at frequency rank #44,752, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæm/. chato is at rank #4,619, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈʃa.tu/.

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 49371, this pair ranks #15,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cham vs chato

Shared letters: ach. Private to "cham": m. Private to "chato": ot.

"cham" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "chato" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cham ← cahm · ccham · chamm · chham · chma · hcam
chato ← cahto · cchato · chaot · chatto · chhato · chtao · hcato

Frequency comparison

cham#44,752

chato#4,619

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cham" and "chato" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cham" is a noun and "chato" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cham" or "chato"?

"chato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,619 in our Portuguese list, against #44,752 for "cham". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cham vs chato

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cham”; for an adjective, it's “chato”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cham” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable