falharvsfilmarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,490
“falhar” frequency rank
#7,408
“filmar” frequency rank
16898
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falhar filmar
Definition rachar transpor imagens para película, paraposterior reprodução; gravar (imagens)

Where the eye mixes falhar and filmar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. falhar and filmar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
falhar
6 ch
filmar

Visual trap between falhar and filmar

A purely visual mix-up. falhar (/fɐ.ˈʎaɾ/) and filmar (/fiɫ.ˈmaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falhar is recorded at frequency rank #9,490, classified as averb, pronounced /fɐ.ˈʎaɾ/. filmar is at rank #7,408, tagged as averb, pronounced /fiɫ.ˈmaɾ/.

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 16898, this pair ranks #54,527 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of falhar vs filmar

Shared letters: aflr. Private to "falhar": h. Private to "filmar": im.

"falhar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "filmar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falhar ← aflhar · fahlar · falahr · falharr · falhhar · falhra · fallhar · ffalhar
  • filmar ← ffilmar · filamr · fillmar · filmarr · filmmar · filmra · fimlar · flimar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "falhar" for "filmar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/fɐ.ˈʎaɾ/ versus /fiɫ.ˈmaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "falhar" or "filmar"?
"filmar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,408 in our Portuguese list, against #9,490 for "falhar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "falhar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "filmar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,527 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falhar" and "filmar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "falhar vs fartar". 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 #54,527 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