chau vs che, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#49,350
“chau” frequency rank: #11,600
“che” frequency rank: 60950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	chau	che
Definition	até logo; adeus!	para expressar desprezo ou que se duvida da verdade do que se esta a ouvir

Letter map: chau vs che

Shared letters muted; letters that set chau and che apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

chau

3 ch

che

Corpus notes: chau and che

chau and che are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chau is recorded at frequency rank #49,350, classified as anintj, pronounced /ʃaʊ/. che is at rank #11,600, tagged as anintj.

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 60950, this pair ranks #7,389 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chau vs che

Shared letters: ch. Private to "chau": au. Private to "che": e.

"chau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "che" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

chau ← cahu · cchau · chhau · chua · hcau

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chau" and "che" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "chau" or "che" show up more?

"che" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,600 in our Portuguese list, against #49,350 for "chau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "chau" vs "che" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "chau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "che" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #7,389 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"chau" and "che" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chau vs ciao". 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 #7,389 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.