foquevsfosseTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#34,289
“foque” frequency rank
#348
“fosse” frequency rank
34637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foque fosse
Definition vela triangular colocada à frente do mastro principal, geralmente içada no estai de proa primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito imperfeito do conjuntivo do verbo ser

Letter map: foque vs fosse

Shared letters muted; letters that set foque and fosse apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. foque (CVCVV) and fosse (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
foque
5 ch
fosse

Grammar separator: foque vs fosse

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foque is anoun and fosseaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foque is recorded at frequency rank #34,289, classified as anoun. fosse is at rank #348, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.si/.

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 34637, this pair ranks #32,572 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foque vs fosse

Shared letters: efo. Private to "foque": qu. Private to "fosse": s.

"foque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foque ← ffoque · foqeu · foqque · fouqe · fqoue · ofque
  • fosse ← ffosse · fose · foses · fsose · ofsse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foque" for "fosse" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foque" is a noun and "fosse" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "foque" vs "fosse" - which ranks higher?
"fosse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #348 in our Portuguese list, against #34,289 for "foque". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "foque" and "fosse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,572 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foque" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fosco vs fosse". 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 #32,572 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