faiavsfaltaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,352
“faia” frequency rank
#335
“falta” frequency rank
45687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faia falta
Definition árvore alta e ramosa, geralmente da espécie Fagus sylvatica, e também o álamo ou choupo Populus nigra transgressão das regras de um jogo

Where the eye mixes faia and falta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. faia runs 4 letters (CVVV) against falta's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
faia
5 ch
falta

Look-alike desk: faia vs falta

A purely visual mix-up. faia (/ˈfaj.ɐ/) and falta (/ˈfaɫ.tɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faia is recorded at frequency rank #45,352, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfaj.ɐ/. falta is at rank #335, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfaɫ.tɐ/.

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 45687, this pair ranks #19,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of faia vs falta

Shared letters: af. Private to "faia": i. Private to "falta": lt.

"faia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "falta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faia ← afia · faai · ffaia · fiaa
  • falta ← aflta · falat · fallta · faltta · fatla · ffalta · flata

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faia" for "falta" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfaj.ɐ/ versus /ˈfaɫ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "faia" vs "falta" - which ranks higher?
"falta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #335 in our Portuguese list, against #45,352 for "faia". 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 "faia" and "falta" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "falta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faia" and "falta" 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 #19,710 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