Which to use
“falho” is an adjective and “folha” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,663
- “falho” frequency rank
- #1,930
- “folha” frequency rank
- 25593
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | falho | folha |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que tem falha | órgão da planta, geralmente verde e responsável pela fotossíntese (na maioria das vezes), composta de limbo (estrutura laminar), pecíolo (haste que liga o limbo ao caule) e, algumas vezes, bainha (invólucro alongado na base do pecíolo) |
Where the eye mixes falho and folha
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. falho and folha follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: falho vs folha
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: falho is /ˈfa.ʎu/ while folha is /ˈfo.ʎɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
falho is recorded at frequency rank #23,663, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfa.ʎu/. folha is at rank #1,930, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfo.ʎɐ/.
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 25593, this pair ranks #43,704 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of falho vs folha
Shared letters: afhlo. Private to "falho": -. Private to "folha": -.
"falho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "folha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "falho" for "folha" ever safe?
Which is more common, "falho" or "folha"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "falho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "folha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,704 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "falho" and "folha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "falho vs filão". 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 #43,704 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.