falirvsfatiaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#27,479
“falir” frequency rank
#12,249
“fatia” frequency rank
39728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falir fatia
Definition ir à falência, não ter como cumprir com suas obrigações financeiras pedaço de alimento cortado em forma de lâmina com alguma espessura

Letter map: falir vs fatia

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

5 ch
falir
5 ch
fatia

Role in the sentence - falir and fatia

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: falir is averb and fatiaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falir is recorded at frequency rank #27,479, classified as averb. fatia is at rank #12,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɐ.ˈti.ɐ/.

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 39728, this pair ranks #26,470 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of falir vs fatia

Shared letters: afi. Private to "falir": lr. Private to "fatia": t.

"falir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fatia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falir ← aflir · failr · falirr · fallir · falri · ffalir · flair
  • fatia ← aftia · faita · fatai · fattia · ffatia · ftaia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "falir" for "fatia" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "falir" is a verb and "fatia" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "falir" or "fatia" show up more?
"fatia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,249 in our Portuguese list, against #27,479 for "falir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "falir" and "fatia".

  • Full dictionary entry for "falir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fatia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,470 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falir" and "fatia" 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 #26,470 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