chãovscoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: chão is a noun, co is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chão” is a noun and “co” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,140
“chão” frequency rank
#2,005
“co” frequency rank
3145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chão co
Definition corda que

Letter map: chão vs co

Shared letters muted; letters that set chão and co apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
chão
2 ch
co

Grammar separator: chão vs co

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: chão is anoun and coapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chão is recorded at frequency rank #1,140, classified as anoun. co is at rank #2,005, tagged as apron.

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 3145, this pair ranks #72,058 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chão vs co

Shared letters: co. Private to "chão": . Private to "co": -.

"chão" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "co" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chão" for "co" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chão" is a noun and "co" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chão" or "co"?
"chão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,140 in our Portuguese list, against #2,005 for "co". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "chão" vs "co" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "co" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,058 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chão" and "co" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chão vs chau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,058 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