fadavsfaiaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,188
“fada” frequency rank
#45,352
“faia” frequency rank
55540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fada faia
Definition entidade imaginária feminina e voadora, com poderes mágicos árvore alta e ramosa, geralmente da espécie Fagus sylvatica, e também o álamo ou choupo Populus nigra

Where the eye mixes fada and faia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fada (CVCV) and faia (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
fada
4 ch
faia

Visual trap between fada and faia

A purely visual mix-up. fada (/ˈfa.dɐ/) and faia (/ˈfaj.ɐ/) 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 a single letter - d in “fada” becomes i in “faia”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fada is recorded at frequency rank #10,188, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa.dɐ/. faia is at rank #45,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfaj.ɐ/.

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 55540, this pair ranks #10,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fada vs faia

Shared letters: af. Private to "fada": d. Private to "faia": i.

"fada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "faia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fada ← afda · faad · fadda · fdaa · ffada
  • faia ← afia · faai · ffaia · fiaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fada" and "faia" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfa.dɐ/ versus /ˈfaj.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fada" vs "faia" - which ranks higher?
"fada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,188 in our Portuguese list, against #45,352 for "faia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "faia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fada" and "faia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faia 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 #10,531 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