folgadovsformadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,431
“folgado” frequency rank
#3,013
“formado” frequency rank
46444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature folgado formado
Definition que tem folga claramente definido

Where the eye mixes folgado and formado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. folgado and formado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
folgado
7 ch
formado

Why the eye confuses folgado with formado

A purely visual mix-up. folgado (/foɫ.ˈɡa.du/) and formado (/fuɾ.ˈma.du/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

folgado is recorded at frequency rank #43,431, classified as anadj, pronounced /foɫ.ˈɡa.du/. formado is at rank #3,013, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fuɾ.ˈma.du/.

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 46444, this pair ranks #18,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of folgado vs formado

Shared letters: adfo. Private to "folgado": gl. Private to "formado": mr.

"folgado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "formado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • folgado ← ffolgado · flogado · foglado · folagdo · folgaddo · folgaod · folgdao · folggado
  • formado ← fformado · fomrado · foramdo · formaddo · formaod · formdao · formmado · forrmado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "folgado" for "formado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/foɫ.ˈɡa.du/ versus /fuɾ.ˈma.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "folgado" or "formado"?
"formado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,013 in our Portuguese list, against #43,431 for "folgado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "folgado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "formado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "folgado" and "formado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "falhado vs folgado". 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 #18,861 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