faltavsfatiaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#335
“falta” frequency rank
#12,249
“fatia” frequency rank
12584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falta fatia
Definition transgressão das regras de um jogo pedaço de alimento cortado em forma de lâmina com alguma espessura

Where the eye mixes falta and fatia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
falta
5 ch
fatia

Look-alike desk: falta vs fatia

A purely visual mix-up. falta (/ˈfaɫ.tɐ/) and fatia (/fɐ.ˈti.ɐ/) 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 12584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falta is recorded at frequency rank #335, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfaɫ.tɐ/. 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 12584, this pair ranks #59,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of falta vs fatia

Shared letters: aft. Private to "falta": l. Private to "fatia": i.

"falta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fatia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faltaaflta · falat · fallta · faltta · fatla · ffalta · flata
  • fatiaaftia · faita · fatai · fattia · ffatia · ftaia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "falta" for "fatia" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfaɫ.tɐ/ versus /fɐ.ˈti.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "falta" vs "fatia" - which ranks higher?
"falta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #335 in our Portuguese list, against #12,249 for "fatia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "falta" and "fatia" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "falta" 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 #59,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falta" and "fatia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fatia vs fava". 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 #59,948 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