fobia vs foca, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,673
“fobia” frequency rank: #8,772
“foca” frequency rank: 34445
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fobia	foca
Definition	transtorno psicológico no qual a pessoa tem um medo ou aversão exagerado de alguma coisa	forma atenuada de, e o mesmo que foda

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fobia and foca apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

fobia

4 ch

foca

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fobia is /fu.ˈbi.ɐ/ while foca is /ˈfɔ.kɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fobia is recorded at frequency rank #25,673, classified as anoun, pronounced /fu.ˈbi.ɐ/. foca is at rank #8,772, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɔ.kɐ/.

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 34445, this pair ranks #32,815 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fobia vs foca

Shared letters: afo. Private to "fobia": bi. Private to "foca": c.

"fobia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "foca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

fobia ← fboia · ffobia · fobai · fobbia · foiba · ofbia
foca ← fcoa · ffoca · foac · focca · ofca

Frequency comparison

fobia#25,673

foca#8,772

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fobia" and "foca" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fobia" is a noun and "foca" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fobia" or "foca"?

"foca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,772 in our Portuguese list, against #25,673 for "fobia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fobia vs foca

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fobia”; for an adjective, it's “foca”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fobia” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable