foremvsfreiTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#3,330
“forem” frequency rank
#9,500
“frei” frequency rank
12830
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature forem frei
Definition terceira pessoa do plural do futuro do subjuntivo do verbo ser. variante ortográfica de freire

Letter map: forem vs frei

Shared letters muted; letters that set forem and frei apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
forem
4 ch
frei

Part-of-speech tell for forem / frei

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: forem is averb and freianoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12830, 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/. frei is at rank #9,500, tagged as anoun.

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 12830, this pair ranks #59,647 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of forem vs frei

Shared letters: efr. Private to "forem": mo. Private to "frei": i.

"forem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "frei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foremfforem · foerm · foremm · forme · forrem · froem · ofrem
  • freiferi · ffrei · frie · frrei · rfei

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "forem" and "frei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "forem" is a verb and "frei" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "forem" or "frei" show up more?
"forem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,330 in our Portuguese list, against #9,500 for "frei". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "forem" and "frei".

  • Full dictionary entry for "forem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,647 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "forem" and "frei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fel vs frei". 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 #59,647 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