vsfaseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,293
“fá” frequency rank
#868
“fase” frequency rank
18161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fase
Definition quarta nota musical da escala de dó maior cada uma das aparências que a Lua nos apresenta

Where the eye mixes fá and fase

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

2 ch
fá
4 ch
fase

Why the eye confuses fá with fase

A purely visual mix-up. (/ˈfa/) and fase (/ˈfa.zɨ/) 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 18161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is recorded at frequency rank #17,293, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa/. fase is at rank #868, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa.zɨ/.

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 18161, this pair ranks #52,892 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fá vs fase

Shared letters: f. Private to "fá": á. Private to "fase": aes.

"fá" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "fase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faseafse · faes · fasse · ffase · fsae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fá" and "fase" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfa/ versus /ˈfa.zɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fá" or "fase"?
"fase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #868 in our Portuguese list, against #17,293 for "fá". 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 "fá" and "fase" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fá" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,892 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fá" and "fase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fá 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 #52,892 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