Which to use
“falhar” is a verb and “folhas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,490
- “falhar” frequency rank
- #3,476
- “folhas” frequency rank
- 12966
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | falhar | folhas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | rachar | naipe dos jogos de baralho alemão |
Where the eye mixes falhar and folhas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. falhar and folhas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses falhar with folhas
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: falhar is /fɐ.ˈʎaɾ/ while folhas is /ˈfoʎɐz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12966, 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/. folhas is at rank #3,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfoʎɐz/.
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 12966, this pair ranks #59,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of falhar vs folhas
Shared letters: afhl. Private to "falhar": r. Private to "folhas": os.
"falhar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "folhas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "falhar" and "folhas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "falhar" or "folhas" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "falhar" and "folhas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "falhar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "folhas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "falhar" and "folhas" 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 #59,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.