fávsfangWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,293
“fá” frequency rank
#34,276
“fang” frequency rank
51569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fá fang
Definition quarta nota musical da escala de dó maior presa

Where the eye mixes fá and fang

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. fá runs 2 letters (CV) against fang's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

2 ch
fá
4 ch
fang

Visual trap between fá and fang

A purely visual mix-up. fá (/ˈfa/) and fang (/fæŋ/) 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 51569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fá is recorded at frequency rank #17,293, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa/. fang is at rank #34,276, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fæŋ/.

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 51569, this pair ranks #13,492 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fá vs fang

Shared letters: f. Private to "fá": á. Private to "fang": agn.

"fá" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "fang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fang ← afng · fagn · fangg · fanng · ffang · fnag

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fá" for "fang" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfa/ versus /fæŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fá" or "fang"?
"fá" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,293 in our Portuguese list, against #34,276 for "fang". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fá" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fang" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,492 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fá" and "fang" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fang vs fava". 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 #13,492 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