focavsfolgaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,772
“foca” frequency rank
#6,544
“folga” frequency rank
15316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foca folga
Definition forma atenuada de, e o mesmo que foda descanso; período sem trabalho

Letter map: foca vs folga

Shared letters muted; letters that set foca and folga apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. foca runs 4 letters (CVCV) against folga's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
foca
5 ch
folga

Grammar separator: foca vs folga

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foca is anadjective and folgaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foca is recorded at frequency rank #8,772, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɔ.kɐ/. folga is at rank #6,544, 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 15316, this pair ranks #56,533 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foca vs folga

Shared letters: afo. Private to "foca": c. Private to "folga": gl.

"foca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "folga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foca ← fcoa · ffoca · foac · focca · ofca
  • folga ← ffolga · floga · fogla · folag · folgga · follga · oflga

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foca" and "folga" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foca" is an adjective and "folga" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "foca" vs "folga" - which ranks higher?
"folga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,544 in our Portuguese list, against #8,772 for "foca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "foca" and "folga".

  • Full dictionary entry for "foca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,533 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foca" and "folga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foca vs fosco". 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 #56,533 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