foresvsforoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,651
“fores” frequency rank
#9,497
“foro” frequency rank
34148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fores foro
Definition segunda pessoa do singular do futuro do conjuntivo/subjuntivo do verbo ir; tribunal de justiça; lugar onde funcionam os órgãos do poder judiciário; fórum; jurisdição, alçada, poder

Where the eye mixes fores and foro

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

5 ch
fores
4 ch
foro

Why the eye confuses fores with foro

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fores is /ˈfo.ɾes/ while foro is /ˈfo.ɾu/. 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 34148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fores is recorded at frequency rank #24,651, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfo.ɾes/. foro is at rank #9,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfo.ɾu/.

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 34148, this pair ranks #33,198 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fores vs foro

Shared letters: for. Private to "fores": es. Private to "foro": -.

"fores" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "foro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foresffores · foers · foress · forres · forse · froes · ofres
  • forofforo · foor · froo · ofro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fores" for "foro" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fores" is a verb and "foro" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fores" or "foro" show up more?
"foro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,497 in our Portuguese list, against #24,651 for "fores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fores" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,198 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fores" and "foro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fores vs former". 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 #33,198 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