fomosvsfoodConfusable pair

Quick tell: fomos is a verb, food is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,012
“fomos” frequency rank
#7,772
“food” frequency rank
9784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fomos food
Definition primeira pessoa do plural do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ser alimento

Where the eye mixes fomos and food

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

5 ch
fomos
4 ch
food

Visual trap between fomos and food

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fomos is /ˈfo.mos/ while food is /fud/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fomos is recorded at frequency rank #2,012, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.mos/. food is at rank #7,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fud/.

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 9784, this pair ranks #63,528 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fomos vs food

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fomos": ms. Private to "food": d.

"fomos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fomos ← ffomos · fmoos · fommos · fomoss · fomso · fooms · ofmos
  • food ← ffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fomos" for "food" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fomos" is a verb and "food" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fomos" vs "food" - which ranks higher?
"fomos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,012 in our Portuguese list, against #7,772 for "food". 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 "fomos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "food" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,528 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fomos" and "food" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fon vs food". 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 #63,528 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