filhovsfiscoConfusable pair

Quick tell: filho is a adjective, fisco is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“filho” is an adjective and “fisco” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#245
“filho” frequency rank
#38,286
“fisco” frequency rank
38531
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filho fisco
Definition procedente, resultante recursos destinados à manutenção do príncipe da Roma Imperial

Where the eye mixes filho and fisco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. filho and fisco follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
filho
5 ch
fisco

Visual trap between filho and fisco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: filho is /ˈfi.ʎu/ while fisco is /ˈfiʃ.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38531, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filho is recorded at frequency rank #245, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfi.ʎu/. fisco is at rank #38,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfiʃ.ku/.

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 38531, this pair ranks #27,908 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of filho vs fisco

Shared letters: fio. Private to "filho": hl. Private to "fisco": cs.

"filho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fisco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filho ← ffilho · fihlo · filhho · fillho · filoh · fliho · iflho
  • fisco ← ffisco · ficso · fiscco · fisoc · fissco · fsico · ifsco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "filho" for "fisco" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "filho" is an adjective and "fisco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "filho" or "fisco"?
"filho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #245 in our Portuguese list, against #38,286 for "fisco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "filho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fisco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,908 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filho" and "fisco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filão vs fisco". 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 #27,908 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