fobia vs foi, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#25,673
“fobia” frequency rank: #26
“foi” frequency rank: 25699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fobia	foi
Definition	transtorno psicológico no qual a pessoa tem um medo ou aversão exagerado de alguma coisa	terceira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ser

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

fobia

3 ch

foi

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fobia is /fu.ˈbi.ɐ/ while foi is /ˈfoj/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25699, 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/. foi is at rank #26, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfoj/.

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 25699, this pair ranks #43,569 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fobia vs foi

Shared letters: fio. Private to "fobia": ab. Private to "foi": -.

"fobia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "foi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

fobia ← fboia · ffobia · fobai · fobbia · foiba · ofbia

Frequency comparison

fobia#25,673

foi#26

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"foi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26 in our Portuguese list, against #25,673 for "fobia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering fobia vs foi

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fobia”; for a verb, it's “foi”.
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