ficarvsfilãoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#169
“ficar” frequency rank
#49,976
“filão” frequency rank
50145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ficar filão
Definition permanecer num lugar intrusão de rochas eruptivas em fendas

Letter map: ficar vs filão

Shared letters muted; letters that set ficar and filão apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. ficar (CVCVC) and filão (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
ficar
5 ch
filão

Grammar separator: ficar vs filão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ficar is averb and filãoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ficar is recorded at frequency rank #169, classified as averb, pronounced /fi.ˈkaχ/. filão is at rank #49,976, tagged as anoun.

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 50145, this pair ranks #14,839 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ficar vs filão

Shared letters: fi. Private to "ficar": acr. Private to "filão": loã.

"ficar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "filão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ficar ← fciar · fficar · fiacr · ficarr · ficcar · ficra · ifcar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ficar" and "filão" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ficar" is a verb and "filão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ficar" vs "filão" - which ranks higher?
"ficar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #169 in our Portuguese list, against #49,976 for "filão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ficar" and "filão".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ficar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "filão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,839 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ficar" and "filão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filão vs finado". 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 #14,839 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