filhovsfishConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#245
“filho” frequency rank
#18,872
“fish” frequency rank
19117
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filho fish
Definition procedente, resultante de peixe, relacionado a peixe:

Where the eye mixes filho and fish

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. filho runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fish's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
filho
4 ch
fish

Look-alike desk: filho vs fish

A purely visual mix-up. filho (/ˈfi.ʎu/) and fish (/ˈfɪʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19117, 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/. fish is at rank #18,872, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɪʃ/.

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 19117, this pair ranks #51,708 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of filho vs fish

Shared letters: fhi. Private to "filho": lo. Private to "fish": s.

"filho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fish" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filho ← ffilho · fihlo · filhho · fillho · filoh · fliho · iflho
  • fish ← ffish · fihs · fishh · fissh · fsih · ifsh

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "filho" and "fish" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfi.ʎu/ versus /ˈfɪʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "filho" or "fish"?
"filho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #245 in our Portuguese list, against #18,872 for "fish". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "filho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fish" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,708 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filho" and "fish" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fish vs friso". 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 #51,708 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