foremvsforjaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#3,330
“forem” frequency rank
#36,463
“forja” frequency rank
39793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forem forja
Definition terceira pessoa do plural do futuro do subjuntivo do verbo ser. local onde fica o equipamento, todo o material e onde se executa o ofício de ferreiro

Where the eye mixes forem and forja

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
forem
5 ch
forja

Look-alike desk: forem vs forja

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: forem is /ˈfo.ɾẽ/ while forja is /ˈfɔɹ.ʒə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

forem is recorded at frequency rank #3,330, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.ɾẽ/. forja is at rank #36,463, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔɹ.ʒə/.

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 39793, this pair ranks #26,412 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of forem vs forja

Shared letters: for. Private to "forem": em. Private to "forja": aj.

"forem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "forja" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foremfforem · foerm · foremm · forme · forrem · froem · ofrem
  • forjafforja · fojra · foraj · forjja · forrja · froja · ofrja

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "forem" for "forja" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "forem" is a verb and "forja" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "forem" or "forja" show up more?
"forem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,330 in our Portuguese list, against #36,463 for "forja". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "forem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forja" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,412 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forem" and "forja" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ferra vs forja". 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 #26,412 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