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 eye mixes fon and fonte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fon runs 3 letters (CVC) against fonte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fon and fonte
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
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fon" for "fonte" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fon" or "fonte" show up more?
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 "fon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fonte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,135 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fon" and "fonte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fern vs fon". 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 #20,135 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.