foram vs Frau, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#97
“foram” frequency rank: #32,994
“Frau” frequency rank: 33091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	foram	Frau
Definition	terceira pessoa do plural do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo ser	mulher

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

foram

4 ch

Frau

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foram is /ˈfo.ɾã/ while Frau is /fraʊ̯/. 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 33091, 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/. Frau is at rank #32,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fraʊ̯/.

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 33091, this pair ranks #34,530 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foram vs Frau

Shared letters: afr. Private to "foram": mo. Private to "Frau": u.

"foram" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "Frau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

foram ← fforam · foarm · foramm · forma · forram · froam · ofram
Frau ← faru · ffrau · frrau · frua · rfau

Frequency comparison

foram#97

Frau#32,994

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "foram" and "Frau" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foram" is a verb and "Frau" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "foram" or "Frau"?

"foram" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #97 in our Portuguese list, against #32,994 for "Frau". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering foram vs Frau

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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