fá vs Frau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,293
“fá” frequency rank: #32,994
“Frau” frequency rank: 50287
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fá	Frau
Definition	quarta nota musical da escala de dó maior	mulher

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fá and Frau apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

2 ch

fá

4 ch

Frau

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fá (/ˈfa/) and Frau (/fraʊ̯/) 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 50287, 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/. Frau is at rank #32,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fraʊ̯/.

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 50287, this pair ranks #14,690 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fá vs Frau

Shared letters: f. Private to "fá": á. Private to "Frau": aru.

"fá" · 2 letters · shape CV · "Frau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

Frau ← faru · ffrau · frrau · frua · rfau

Frequency comparison

fá#17,293

Frau#32,994

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fá" and "Frau" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈfa/ versus /fraʊ̯/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "fá" or "Frau"?

"fá" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,293 in our Portuguese list, against #32,994 for "Frau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fá vs Frau

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fá” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable