falhadovsfalharWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: falhado is a adjective, falhar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“falhado” is an adjective and “falhar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,978
“falhado” frequency rank
#9,490
“falhar” frequency rank
32468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falhado falhar
Definition que possui falhas rachar

Letter map: falhado vs falhar

Shared letters muted; letters that set falhado and falhar apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. falhado runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against falhar's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
falhado
6 ch
falhar

Grammar separator: falhado vs falhar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: falhado is anadjective and falharaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falhado is recorded at frequency rank #22,978, classified as anadj. falhar is at rank #9,490, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɐ.ˈʎaɾ/.

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 32468, this pair ranks #35,336 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of falhado vs falhar

Shared letters: afhl. Private to "falhado": do. Private to "falhar": r.

"falhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "falhar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falhado ← aflhado · fahlado · falahdo · falhaddo · falhaod · falhdao · falhhado · fallhado
  • falhar ← aflhar · fahlar · falahr · falharr · falhhar · falhra · fallhar · ffalhar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "falhado" and "falhar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "falhado" is an adjective and "falhar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "falhado" or "falhar" show up more?
"falhar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,490 in our Portuguese list, against #22,978 for "falhado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "falhado" and "falhar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "falhado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "falhar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,336 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falhado" and "falhar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "falhado vs folgado". 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 #35,336 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