Which to use
“foram” is a verb and “foras” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #97
- “foram” frequency rank
- #35,602
- “foras” frequency rank
- 35699
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foram | foras |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | terceira pessoa do plural do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ser | forma plural de fora |
Where the eye mixes foram and foras
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foram and foras follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses foram with foras
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foram is /ˈfo.ɾã/ while foras is /ˈfɔ.ɾas/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “foram” becomes s in “foras”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foram is recorded at frequency rank #97, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.ɾã/. foras is at rank #35,602, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔ.ɾas/.
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 35699, this pair ranks #31,318 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foram vs foras
Shared letters: afor. Private to "foram": m. Private to "foras": s.
"foram" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "foras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foram" and "foras" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "foram" or "foras" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foram" and "foras" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foram" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,318 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foram" and "foras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fodão vs foras". 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 #31,318 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.