falirvsfaltaConfusable pair

Quick tell: falir is a verb, falta is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“falir” is a verb and “falta” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,479
“falir” frequency rank
#335
“falta” frequency rank
27814
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falir falta
Definition ir à falência, não ter como cumprir com suas obrigações financeiras transgressão das regras de um jogo

Letter map: falir vs falta

Shared letters muted; letters that set falir and falta apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. falir (CVCVC) and falta (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
falir
5 ch
falta

Grammar separator: falir vs falta

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: falir is averb and faltaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falir is recorded at frequency rank #27,479, classified as averb. 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 27814, this pair ranks #41,117 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of falir vs falta

Shared letters: afl. Private to "falir": ir. Private to "falta": t.

"falir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "falta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falir ← aflir · failr · falirr · fallir · falri · ffalir · flair
  • falta ← aflta · falat · fallta · faltta · fatla · ffalta · flata

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "falir" for "falta" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "falir" is a verb and "falta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "falir" or "falta" show up more?
"falta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #335 in our Portuguese list, against #27,479 for "falir". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "falir" vs "falta" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "falir" 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 #41,117 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falir" and "falta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faia vs falir". 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 #41,117 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