fon vs fonte, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#44,372
“fon” frequency rank: #894
“fonte” frequency rank: 45266
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fon	fonte
Definition	relativo à etnia dos fons	lugar onde nasce água

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch

fon

5 ch

fonte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fon is /ˈfõ/ while fonte is /ˈfõ.tɨ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fon” sits inside “fonte”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45266, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fon is recorded at frequency rank #44,372, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfõ/. fonte is at rank #894, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfõ.tɨ/.

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 45266, this pair ranks #20,135 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fon vs fonte

Shared letters: fno. Private to "fon": -. Private to "fonte": et.

"fon" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fonte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

fonte ← ffonte · fnote · fonet · fonnte · fontte · fotne · ofnte

Frequency comparison

fon#44,372

fonte#894

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fon" and "fonte" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fon" is an adjective and "fonte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fon" or "fonte"?

"fonte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #894 in our Portuguese list, against #44,372 for "fon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering fon vs fonte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “fon”; for a noun, it's “fonte”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fon” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable