focavsforasWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,772
“foca” frequency rank
#35,602
“foras” frequency rank
44374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foca foras
Definition forma atenuada de, e o mesmo que foda forma plural de fora

Where the eye mixes foca and foras

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

4 ch
foca
5 ch
foras

Look-alike desk: foca vs foras

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foca is /ˈfɔ.kɐ/ while foras is /ˈfɔ.ɾas/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44374, 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/. foras is at rank #35,602, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔ.ɾas/.

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 44374, this pair ranks #21,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foca vs foras

Shared letters: afo. Private to "foca": c. Private to "foras": rs.

"foca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "foras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foca ← fcoa · ffoca · foac · focca · ofca
  • foras ← fforas · foars · forass · forras · forsa · froas · ofras

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foca" for "foras" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foca" is an adjective and "foras" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "foca" vs "foras" - which ranks higher?
"foca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,772 in our Portuguese list, against #35,602 for "foras". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "foca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foca" and "foras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fodão vs foras". 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 #21,127 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